Visits: 9
View towards the pool and spa of the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, February 13, 2017.
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Yujing Zhang, a Chinese national who was detained by the U.S. Secret Service after gaining entry to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, was found guilty Wednesday of trespassing and lying to federal agents.
Zhang, a 33-year-old business consultant, was convicted by a 12-person jury in Florida federal court. She faces up to six years in prison.
The Chinese national — who was carrying four mobile phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive — was able to travel past numerous Secret Service agents at the resort and enter areas labeled off limits, court documents alleged.
While Zhang was at Mar-a-Lago on March 30, Trump was playing golf nearby at his Trump International course.
When Zhang was detained, she had claimed to the agents that she was there to attend a “United Nations Friendship Event” — which did not actually exist — between China and the United States, according to her criminal complaint.
NBC News reported that Zhang’s trial had been bizarrely delayed Monday over her lack of underwear, which ground the jury selection process to a halt for a short time.
She had told Judge Roy Altman that she had not been provided any, which led her to wear jail clothes in the courtroom, NBC reported. Defendants normally do not wear prison garb during their trials, as it could prejudice jurors against them.