From day 1, U.S. intelligence experts warned that Donald Trump’s use of his private club in Florida was a national security risk. From high-tech listening devices that could be used by foreign governments to monitor conversations and cell phone usage from boats offshore to the apparent selling of access to Donald Trump himself, all of it has posed red flags.
In fact, we don’t know exactly how vulnerable the vacation home of Donald Trump truly is because there has been a lack of transparency. Whatever fears the experts had will surely be compounded now that a Yujing Zhang, a Chinese national, apparently lied her way into Mar-a-Lago and was only caught when a rather astute receptionist at the golf club, not the Secret Service, began asking questions, and Zhang’s story began to unravel. After being detained, she was found to be carrying two passports, a laptop, four cellphones and a thumb drive containing malicious software.
Now the Miami Herald is reporting that there is a broader federal investigation into Chinese intelligence operations inside Mar-a-Lago, sparked by the investigation of Li “Cindy” Yang, the founder of the Palm Beach spa where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was arrested for soliciting prostitution. Yang had been spending a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago, and has been accused of selling access to the club, which means selling access to Donald Trump and his family. Yang posted photos of herself on several social media platforms with Trump and his family.
Meanwhile, Democrats have begun the process of finding out just how vulnerable Mar-a-Lago really is to espionage. More from the Miami Herald:
On Wednesday, top Democrats in Washington called on the FBI and Director of National Intelligence to assess the risks posed by Mar-a-Lago’s policy of admitting members of the public and foreign nationals while the president and his family are using the facility.
“The apparent ease with which Ms. Zhang gained access to the facility during the president’s weekend visit raises concerns about the system for screening visitors, including the reliance on determinations made by Mar-a-Lago employees,” stated a letter from Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Cal., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
“As the White House Communications Agency and Secret Service continue to establish several secure areas at Mar-a-Lago for handling classified information when the president travels there, these potential vulnerabilities have serious national security implications,” the letter continued.
The public and members of Congress have every right to be concerned about the steady stream of grifters and foreign actors gaining access merely by writing a big enough check. After all, Donald Trump is so blasé about national security that he once turned the terrace of Mar-a-Lago into an actual situation room. Who could forget this incident?
“Someone opened up a laptop, and at the table . . . a group of Japanese people stood around the prime minister and Donald, and they were all looking at the laptop,” said Jay Weitzman, a member of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and founder of the Pennsylvania-based parking management company Park America. He was sitting three tables away from Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday evening.
“Whoa,” Weitzman remembered thinking. “What’s going on?”
“Turns out, it was a missile launch,” he said Monday.
Donald Trump’s continued use of Mar-a-Lago is a threat to national security. That is not debatable. The question now is, just how bad is it? Let’s hope Democrats get to the bottom of it before real damage is done, if it isn’t too late.