Chinese woman arrested at Trump resort with malware on thumb drive

This file photo taken on April 18, 2018, shows US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. A Chinese woman carrying multiple cellphones and thumb drives bearing malware was arrested on March 30, 2019, at the resort while the president was staying there, court documents revealed on April 2. AFP

WASHINGTON, United States — A Chinese woman carrying multiple cellphones and thumb drives bearing malware was arrested on Saturday at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while the president was staying there, court documents revealed Tuesday.

An arrest document in the federal district court of Palm Beach, Florida says Zhang Yujing tried to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, first claiming she was a member headed to the pool and then claiming to be attending a non-existent Chinese-American event.

US press accounts said she had “Chinese passports” but the court document stated they were for “Republic of China,” the official name of Taiwan, as opposed to “People’s Republic of China,” the mainland.

Secret Service agents at the scene inspected her found four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive that “contained malicious software”, according to the document.

She had no swimsuit, the document said, despite her initial claim to be headed for a swim.

Zhang was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal officers and knowingly entering a restricted building — which Mar-a-Lago is while Trump is in residence. /cbb