Is there a spy mole lurking inside Mar-a-Lago?

 

Are there foreign spies
lurking inside Mar-a-Lago?

A mole at Mar-a-Lago could be just about anyone. The former White House chief of staff John Kelly tried to limit who had access to the place, but the effort fizzled when Trump refused to cooperate. Former Secret Service and intelligence officials say the resort is a security nightmare vulnerable to both casual and professional spies. One intelligence official said that the foreign visitors there and others who might have connections with foreign governments and foreign agents “creates a significant national security threat."

     At the White House, visitors must undergo a rigorous background screening with every visitor’s full name, birth date, Social Security number, city of residence and country of birth is checked out. But nearly anyone can stroll into Mar-a-Lago without any appropriate degree of disclosure. Visitors go through a security checkpoint staffed by the Secret Service who check them out for weapons, but there’s only one requirement to produce a photo ID. The security staff at Mar-a-Lago do not ask guests to provide their names or other information when they enter through the main entrance. 

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     Fortunately, in 2019, a Chinese woman, named Yujing Zhang, was arrested after almost evading security. She was carrying five cell phone SIM cards, a hard drive, nine USB thumb drives including one primed with malware, and a device that could detect electronic signals. She had two Chinese passports, and investigators found a device for detecting hidden cameras when they searched her hotel room. 

     Experts in counterintelligence say that Mar-a-Lago may be a “nest of spies” since foreign infiltrators don’t even need to physically go there to do their spying. The names of the club’s nearly 500 exclusive dues-paying members were leaked to the news media, and foreign intelligence has no doubt targeted them to determine which ones may be vulnerable to being bribed or coerced into helping them get close to the president.

     This is why a mole inside Mar-a-Lago could be just about anyone. I hope they didn’t rummage through Trump’s classified files before the FBI recovered them. I’m sure foreign intelligence services are constantly trying to find one of the club’s hundreds of members, or staff, who is willing to pull off an inside job.  

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community. He authors the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thriller: MISSION OF VENGEANCE.