Feds seek national security case against Mar-a-Lago intruder

MIAMI — For the first time, federal prosecutors have disclosed they are developing a potential national security case against Yujing Zhang, the 33-yearold Chinese woman charged with unlawfully entering Mar-a-Lago with a stash of electronic equipment.

They asked a federal judge to allow them to file “classified information” under seal without the public — or the defendant — seeing it. If the motion is granted, prosecutors will present the evidence directly to the federal judge in Zhang’s trespassing case during a private, closed meeting in the judge’s chambers.

The prosecution’s motion indicates that she is a focus of a widening U.S. probe of possible Chinese espionage and suggests that authorities have evidence she was likely not simply a “bumbling tourist” who acis cidentally found her way into President Donald Trump’s private estate in Palm Beach.

The motion by a counterintelligence prosecutor with the U.S. attorney’s office suggests that authorities have relevant classified evidence that could pose a risk to national security should anyone, including Zhang, ever see it.

Zhang’s case is part of a broader federal investigation into possible Chinese spying at Mar-a-Lago that the Miami Herald revealed also focused on Republican donor Li “Cindy” Yang, who sold access to the president and his family on Chinese social media. Yang is also under investigation by the Justice Department for bundling contributions from Chinese nationals to Trump’s reelection campaign, despite a ban on such foreign contributions.

On Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin asked U.S. District Judge Roy Altman to allow the government to seal the sensitive evidence in the Zhang case under Section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act. The law, designed to protect matters and methods of national security, allows the government to present evidence directly to the judge without disclosing it to the defendant or public.

Zhang, who was arrested attempting to enter Mar-aLago with a trove of electronics on March 30, was charged by indictment with two federal crimes: unlawful entry and lying to a federal agent. Although no charges have been brought under the Espionage Act, prosecutors for the U.S. attorney’s office have always hinted that the case involved matters of national security.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Zhang — against the judge’s recommendation — was allowed to fire her defense attorneys and represent herself at trial after her lawyers with the federal public defender’s office said she was mentally competent to do so. Trial is tentatively set for mid-August.