WASHINGTON — Top congressional Democrats on Monday asked the FBI to conduct investigations of a Florida woman who started a day spa later alleged to be a front for illegal prostitution and who allegedly sought to sell to Chinese citizens access to events with President Trump and his administration.
The request from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., along with their Senate counterparts, focuses on Cindy Yang, a U.S. citizen born in China who founded and then sold a massage parlor that was the center of what Florida authorities said was an illegal prostitution ring. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and two dozen other men were charged late last month with soliciting prostitution.
Yang wasn’t implicated in that prostitution sting, which began after she sold the business. But after the charges were announced, the Miami Herald reported on her efforts to network with Trump and introduce members of the Chinese Communist Party to South Florida’s political scene, including by offering to sell access to events at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
“If true, these allegations raise serious counterintelligence concerns,” the Democrats wrote to Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. “China has frequently used non-traditional intelligence collectors and businesspersons to compromise targets,” they said in asking the FBI to conduct investigations “into credible allegations of human trafficking, as well as unlawful foreign lobbying, campaign finance, and other activities by Ms. Yang.”
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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