He’s the second Chinese citizen to do this. One more will be a pattern. | [FoxNews] Palm Beach County court records show that Zijie Li, 38, is still in jail and is being held on a $10,000 bond
A Chinese citizen was arrested after police said he repeatedly tried to get into former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Zijie Li, 38, of El Monte, California, claimed that he had documents that tie his home country's government to the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was killed by Secret Service agents after the bullets he fired struck Trump's ear, narrowly missing his skull, and hit three of his supporters, killing former Buffalo Township Fire Chief Corey Comperatore.
Following the assassination attempt, the Secret Service increased security around Trump's estate and his other properties. The Palm Beach Post reported this also prompted the agency's decision to close South Ocean Boulevard next to Mar-a-Lago, effective on July 20.
Li's first of several attempts to reach Mar-a-Lago was the night before, on July 19, when Li reportedly drove up to the estate's main entrance on South Ocean Boulevard in a gray Toyota Prius and told Secret Service agents that he had documents showing China was involved in the attempted assassination, according to an arrest report obtained by the Palm Beach Post.
However, Trump was not home at the time and was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Convention.
Agents then reportedly told Li that he was trespassing and was not allowed on the property and the Palm Beach Police Department issued him a written warning, the report said. Police also told Li that he was not permitted to return to Mar-a-Lago, and if he did, he would be arrested.
Li's next visit to Palm Beach was July 22, where footage from town security cameras showed that he drove east and then west again over the Royal Park Bridge twice, first in the morning and then in the afternoon, the arrest report said.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Li is also not the first Chinese citizen to face charges for trying to gain access to Mar-a-Lago. A 32-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in 2019 after the Secret Service said she lied to get into the club and then claimed she wanted to talk to Trump about economic relations between China and the United States.
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