Chinese woman arrested after getting past Mar-a-Lago security with 'malicious' software

A Chinese woman who got through securitycheckpoints at U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort inFlorida carrying a thumb drive coded with "malicious" softwarewas arrested on Saturday for entering a restricted property andmaking false statements to officials, according to a courtfiling.

Documents filed by the Secret Service on Monday in U.S.District Court for the Southern District of Florida say thatshortly after noon on Saturday, the woman approached a SecretService agent screening visitors to Mar-a-Lagoseeking entranceto the club.

The woman produced two Chinese passports displaying her photoand said she wanted to go to the pool. Secret Service officerscould not initially find her name on an access list for theproperty, according to the Secret Service affidavit filed withthe court.

Resort personnel became suspicious after she appeared tohave trouble explaining why she was visiting Mar-a-Lago,
according to the affidavit.

Event woman claimed to be going to not scheduled

The woman initially said she was there for an event staged by agroup called the United Nations Chinese American Association.But resort staff found no such event was scheduled, according tothe court filing.

A receptionist then contacted Secret Service personnel whoquestioned the woman and concluded she did not have "any legitimatedocumentation" authorizing her entry to Mar-a-Lago, according tothe filing.

After detaining her, investigators found in her possession four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external harddrive device and a thumb drive, the Secret Service court filingsays. Initial examination of the thumb drive determined itcontained "malicious malware," the Secret Service said.

The White House referred questions on the incident to theSecret Service on Tuesday. The Secret Service declined comment,saying the investigation was still open.

In a court filing on Tuesday, a public defender representingZhang said she was invoking her right to remain silent.

A Justice Department spokeswoman had no comment on thearrest.