Chinese citizen tried to enter Mar-a-Lago and said he had info on Trump shooting: report
A Chinese citizen was reportedly arrested after police said he tried multiple times to enter former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, claiming he had documents linking China to the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Zijie Li, 38, of El Monte, California, faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge over the Wednesday incident, the Palm Beach Post reported Friday. His bail was set at just $3,000 bond, court records showed.
Li first tried to break into the country club around 8 p.m. on July 19. He drove up to the gates on South Ocean Boulevard in a gray Toyota Prius. Trump was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the time for the Republican National Convention.
Security cameras found Li driving to Palm Beach a second time on July 22, when he drove east and then west again over the Royal Park Bridge. Trump had returned to the club the previous morning.
Read Also: ‘A little boy’: Former GOP congressman says Trump’s worst tantrums are yet to come
A week later, on July 30 at approximately 5:40 p.m., Li was spotted again driving toward the Mar-a-Lago checkpoint at South County Road and South Ocean Boulevard. He ended up blocking a lane of traffic, which involved local police. The officer reported that Li's GPS system had the Mar-a-Lago address plugged in as his destination.
He was released and headed west out of town, but returned an hour later. He was stopped and warned not to return to Mar-a-Lago.
Li refused to give up, police said. The town's security cameras showed Li's car driving back and forth past Secret Service checkpoints.
The last point was when Li drove back to the southern gate, where police arrested him for violating trespassing warnings.
Since the attack in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service has expanded the security around Mar-a-Lago and Trump's other properties.
This is the second time a Chinese national has attempted to get into Mar-a-Lago. In 2019, a 32-year-old woman lied to get into the club and then said she wanted to talk to him about economic relations with China.