Alina Habba. (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)
President Donald Trump publicly turned on one of his most loyal former lawyers on Saturday. He called Alina Habba Mildon’s reported $50 million contract with the family of a Venezuelan banker he later pardoned “totally obnoxious and outrageous.”
“I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. “I told her, and I said, ‘I don’t want her paid.’ I thought we had somebody speak to the people that did it, and she used her relationship to do that. And it was far too much.”
“You know, it’s one thing for a person to get paid legal fees or whatever. She’s a lawyer,” Trump added. “I thought it was totally obnoxious and outrageous, and it’s not acceptable. Not acceptable.”
The New York Times reported last week that the family of Julio Herrera Velutini guaranteed Habba Mildon more than $50 million over four years: $10 million a year plus bonuses. Herrera is a Venezuelan banker who had faced federal bribery charges. Habba Mildon signed on as general counsel for a company started by Herrera’s daughter while she was still at the Justice Department, according to the Times.
She formally started the job on Jan. 1. Trump pardoned Herrera on Jan. 15, Reuters reported, citing the Justice Department’s website. Herrera had faced felony bribery charges but reached a lenient plea deal in 2025, and the pardon covered a misdemeanor campaign finance violation.
Habba Mildon has said she was never paid for a pardon, never met with anyone at the White House or Justice Department about one, and never did any work on a pardon for anyone.
The Times previously reported that when Trump first learned of the contract, he "erupted and told aides that Habba Mildon should donate some of the money to his future presidential library. A reporter asked on Saturday whether he still expected that.
“Not her,” Trump said. “I expect maybe the people. I don’t know if anybody wants to make it, but it’s unacceptable what she did.”
Habba Mildon was one of Trump’s most visible defenders, representing him in several civil cases before he named her interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey. A court later ruled she was serving unlawfully. She resigned in December and became a senior adviser to the attorney general.
She did not respond to the Times’ request for comment.
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