Zhang, 33, is scheduled to face a federal judge Monday afternoon for the third time since she was arrested on March 30 inside President Donald Trump’s gilded waterfront resort. The authorities said she had gained entry on the strength of a dubious party invitation and was carrying a laptop computer, four cellphones and a thumb drive infected with malware in her purse. The judge will consider her request to be released on bail.
The long gray dress she wore to the club has been replaced with the navy blue scrubs worn by female federal inmates, and her cell doubtless bears little resemblance to the $600-a-night boutique hotel where she had been staying in Palm Beach. Zhang had paid $20,000 and flown 8,000 miles from Shanghai, but her luxury business trip was over after just two days in Florida.
Zhang, a Chinese citizen, was indicted on Friday on charges of lying to a federal agent when she said she was at Mar-a-Lago to use the pool; she had no swimsuit with her. She is also accused of illegally entering a restricted area, even though club employees had escorted her in because her surname — one of the most common in China — was the same as that of a dues-paying member.
Prosecutors said that a sweep of Zhang’s room at the Colony Hotel near the resort turned up a device used to detect hidden cameras, nine jump drives and five SIM cards. She also had about $8,000 in cash.
A federal prosecutor, Rolando Garcia, urged the judge in the case last week to keep Zhang locked up because so much about her was still a mystery, including what level of bail would assure her appearance at trial. “To say that there is incomplete information of her financial assets is an understatement,” Garcia said.
He said the authorities were furiously examining her electronic devices, and that what was known from them so far did not back up her claim that she had gone to Mar-a-Lago for a United Nations Chinese Friendship Association event. No such event appeared on the club calendar, although a related event had been scheduled and then canceled.
Garcia stressed that while Zhang has not been charged with espionage, her intentions were still murky, he said, and she “lies to everyone that she encounters.”
If the judge in the case, Magistrate Judge William Matthewman, decides to release Zhang pending trial, she would probably be immediately detained by immigration authorities. She no longer has a legal basis to remain in the country because the State Department has revoked her tourist visa.
Zhang’s federal public defender, Robert E. Adler, said he planned to present witnesses on her behalf to tell the court on Monday that they were willing to provide Zhang with a place to stay while her case winds through the courts. Adler’s strategy was complicated by the loss of Zhang’s visa, he said, so to obtain her freedom, he may have to argue the matter twice, first to Matthewman and then to an immigration judge.
“In order to gain entry, the only thing Ms. Zhang did was give a very common Chinese name and make no claims she was there as a member or family member,” Adler said. “I don’t understand how this would support a trespassing charge after making no misrepresentations.”
He said the whole episode was either a misunderstanding or a mistake by the Mar-a-Lago staff.
Matthewman said that if Zhang is convicted of lying to a federal agent, she faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.