President Donald Trump last month was photographed partying with the founder of a Florida day spa that has been accused of being involved with human trafficking.
The Miami Herald reports that Li Yang, the founder of a chain of day spas that have been caught up in a human trafficking investigation, attended Trump’s Super Bowl party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in February.
During the party, Li Yang even sat down next to Trump and snapped a photo of herself next to him while he was cheering on the New England Patriots in their eventual Super Bowl victory.
Nineteen days after the photo was taken, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is himself a staunch Trump ally, was charged with soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia spa in Jupiter, Florida, which is one of the establishments founded by Li Yang. Yang herself has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the Florida day spa scandal so far.
According to the Miami Herald, Yang sold off the Orchids of Asia day spa to another Chinese businesswoman named Hua Zhang in 2013. However, the Herald reports that “online reviews from prior to 2013 suggest sex was for sale” at the spa before it was sold to its current owner.”
And this isn’t the only connection between Yang and Trump, the Herald reports.
“Since 2017, she and her close relatives have contributed more than $42,000 to Trump Victory, a political action committee, and more than $16,000 to the president’s campaign,” the publication reports. “In February 2018, Yang was invited by the White House to participate in an event hosted by the Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative, an advisory commission Trump established by executive order the year before.”
Image by Emilio Labrador via Flickr and a CC license