The trial of a Chinese businesswoman accused of trespassing at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and deceiving Secret Service agents kicked off with an exceptionally odd hold-up: the defendant showed up without underwear.
Yujing Zhang, who was arrested in March after slipping past security at the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and now faces federal charges, began a jury selection hearing on Monday by informing the judge that she had not been provided with underwear by her jailers.
“You have no undergarments in your cell?” asked US District Judge Roy Altman.
“No,” Zhang replied.
Altman explained that Zhang might face prejudice from the jury if she conducted the hearing in prison garb, and after a brief back-and-forth with Zhang’s court adviser, it was determined she did indeed possess underwear. She was eventually brought to a holding cell and allowed to switch into civilian clothes.
The minor delay over the unmentionables was not the only strange moment of Monday’s proceeding, in which Zhang also attempted to inform the judge that her trial had been “canceled.”
Altman, who quickly shot down that amateur legal opinion, also “strongly recommended” that Zhang re-appoint her public defenders – she’d fired them in June – warning that she was “obviously unprepared to proceed” in the trial.
“I don’t think so,” Zhang shot back.
The defendant primarily spoke in Mandarin through a translator during the hearing, but at one point Zhang told the judge she was having trouble following along, as she hadn’t spoken the language in months.
“You speak Chinese – you are from China,” Altman replied with exasperation, just before 60 potential jurors filed into the courtroom for the selection process.
While Zhang’s motive for sneaking into Mar-a-Lago in March remains a mystery, the strange circumstances of her arrest have prompted suspicions that she may have worked as a Chinese spy. The Secret Service says Zhang had four cellphones, a computer, as well as a hard drive and a small data storage device in her possession the day she was arrested. Zhang claims she carried the electronics because she thought they would be stolen from her hotel room, but investigators say they found valuables – including $8,000 in cash – in the room sitting out in the open.
No espionage charges have been filed in Zhang’s case to date, but prosecutors have submitted secret evidence under seal which, they say, has national security implications.