Chinese businesswoman convicted in Mar-a-Lago trespass case

Fort Lauderdale, September 12

A Chinese businesswoman has been convicted of trespassing at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and lying to Secret Service agents.

The 10-woman, two-man federal jury reached the verdict Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the case of Yujing Zhang. The 33-year-old Shanghai business consultant faces up to six years in prison.

Zhang was arrested March 30. Prosecutors say she told a Secret Service agent she was there to swim and a clerk that she was there for a United Nations friendship event that prosecutors say she knew had been cancelled.

Prosecutors say Zhang carried a computer, cellphones and other electronics and had additional gear and significant cash in her hotel room, but she was not charged with espionage.

Zhang served as her own attorney after firing her public defenders. — AP