‘Mar-a-Lago intruder had hidden-camera detector’

WEST PALM BEACH (Florida): A Chinese woman recently arrested at President Donald Trump’s Mar-aLago club lied repeatedly to Secret Service agents while carrying computer malware unlike anything a government analyst had ever seen and had more than US$8,000 (RM32,768) in cash at her hotel room, along with an electronic device that detects hidden cameras, federal authorities told a judge.

Assistant US Attorney Rolando Garcia on Monday told Magistrate Judge William Matthewman during a bond hearing that “there are a lot of questions that remain” about 32-year-old Yujing Zhang

He said the FBI is still investigating whether Zhang is a spy.

Zhang was arrested March 30 after Secret Service agents said she lied to gain admission to the president’s Palm Beach resort and was found to be carrying two Chinese passports, four cellphones, a laptop, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing the malware.

Matthewman adjourned the hearing until next Monday as Zhang’s public defender said he is still gathering evidence that could justify her release on bail on charges of lying to federal agents and illegal entry to a restricted area.

Garcia said he expects Zhang will be indicted by a federal grand jury this week on those charges.

He said Zhang would be a “serious risk of flight” if she were released while she awaits trial, as she has no ties to the United States.

The State Department revoked her visa last week, he said, so even if she were released on bond, she would be detained by immigration officials.

She arrived in the US two days before her arrest on a flight from Shanghai to Newark, New Jersey.

Zhang sat quietly at the defence table during the two-hour hearing, scribbling notes in Chinese characters as she listened to a translator through headphones.

“She lies to everyone she encounters,” Garcia told the judge.

He said not only did Zhang falsely tell a Secret Service agent at a Mara-Lago checkpoint that she was a member there to use the pool, even though she had no swimsuit, she told agents she was carrying her computer gear because she was afraid the items would be stolen if she left them in her hotel room.

But when agents searched it, they found US$7,620 (RM31,211) in US currency, another US$663 (RM2,715) worth of Chinese currency, numerous US credit and debit cards, the device used to find hidden electronics and other computer gear, he said.

Secret Service agent Samuel Ivanovich told the judge that when an agency analyst uploaded the malware found on Zhang’s thumb drive, it immediately began installing on the analyst’s computer and corrupting its files.

“That was something that had never happened before,” Ivanovich told the judge.

He said the analyst immediately shut down the computer to protect it. He said the malware’s ultimate purpose remains unknown.

While questioning Ivanovich, public defender Robert Adler presented Zhang as not fluent in English and suggested she may not have been lying, but misunderstanding agents’ questions.

He pointed out that Zhang made no attempt to hide her electronic gear while entering Mar-a-Lago and agreed to be interviewed for almost nine hours.

She (Zhang) lies to everyone she encounters.

Rolando Garcia