Feds Have Launched a Counterintelligence Investigation Into Foreign Government Targeting of Mar-a-Lago

Federal authorities have launched a counterintelligence investigation focused on foreign government influence targeting President Donald Trump‘s Florida golf club, Mar-a-Lago.

The investigation came to light and was “”turbo-charged,” after news broke that a woman armed with two passports, four cell phones, a computer and other devices, and a malware loaded thumb-drive lied her way in to Mar-a-Lago. The Miami Herald, which broke the news of the federal counterintelligence probe, characterized it as a “never-before-reported investigation.”

The Chinese national, Yujing Zhang, was arrested on Saturday by U.S. Secret Service agents who tried to enter the club and claimed she wanted to go swimming in the Mar-a-Lago members-only pool. As the AP reported, she did not have a bathing suit.

Investigators are attempting to determine if Zhang is associated with Cindy Yang, the former owner of massage parlors “who has promoted events at Mar-a-Lago with ads targeting Chinese business executives hoping to gain access to Trump and his family.

“Now, The Herald adds, “investigators with the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force in South Florida are trying to figure out who Zhang is and whether she is involved in a possible Chinese intelligence mission and whether there are links to Yang’s social events at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.”