Mar-a-Lago intruder denied bail

Zhang Yujin's passport.

The strange case of the Mar-a-Lago intruder keeps getting stranger.

A Chinese citizen, Zhang Yujin, apparently lied her way into Donald Trump's Florida resort and was found to be carrying multiple phones, a laptop and a thumb drive that preliminary investigations suggested contained malware. A search of her hotel room found more than $7,500 in cash, multiple SIM cards and a signal detector used for finding hidden cameras.

Monday, federal Magistrate Judge William Matthewman in Florida denied Zhang bail saying there was an "extreme risk of flight" if she was released.

Matthewman noted that Zhang, who lives and works in Shanghai, had no family or ties to the U.S. and that there is no extradition treaty between the two nations. There was a serious risk of flight, said the judge.

Zhang’s charges were of a serious nature, said Matthewman. It appeared to the court that she was “up to something nefarious” when she allegedly tried to gain unlawful access to Mar-a-Lago.

Court documents indicate that Zhang has entered the U.S. at least six times since 2013, arriving at various ports including New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Since being charged, her 10-year B1/B2 visa, a business visa, has been revoked — meaning that, had she been granted bail, she could have faced immediate idetention by immigration.

Zhang is accused of lying to federal officers and gaining access to a restricted area after she entered Mar-a-Lago on March 30, when Donald Trump was present at the seaside resort. She allegedly told Secret Service agents she was there to use the pool, then changed her story, telling reception staff she was there to attend a function and mingle with members of the Trump family, according to a criminal complaint. The receptionist noted that there was no such event scheduled and called in the Secret Service.

EDITED April 16, 2019, to incude test results of alleged malware.

Zhang pleaded "not guilty," to the accusations. The allged malware has since been tested and that charged was removed. She claims it was poor translation that got her in her predicament although Secret Service officers says that Zhang spoke and understood English perfectly.

“The sad fact is that if a Mandarin interpreter had been provided at that first Secret Service checkpoint, we very well would not be here today,” said Kristy Militello, one of Zhang’s  court-appointed federal public defenders.

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