Alina Habba attends her swearing-in ceremony as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 28, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File photo
The White House is reportedly souring on a former Trump lawyer over a key piece of evidence in her explosive MAGA feud.
Officials are now questioning whether a text message at the center of Alina Habba's accusations against former Kennedy Center chief Ric Grenell is authentic, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
Habba, Trump's former personal lawyer, has accused Grenell of failing to pass along $5.6 million that her billionaire husband, Turhan Mildon, says he donated to the arts center. Grenell denies it.
Habba brought the accusation directly to Trump in the Oval Office on Oct. 9, according to The Daily Mail. The president called White House counsel Will Scharf into the room, phoned Grenell on the spot and told Scharf to take the matter seriously and report back as soon as possible.
Her case largely hinges on a May 2025 text Mildon says Grenell sent him, promising to arrange a Kennedy Center donation and suggesting Mildon would gain access to VIP events and the president himself.
But White House officials have zeroed in on the message's spelling, which uses the British "centre" and a hyphenated "e-mail." One official told The Daily Mail it was not "a typical way an American would write that."
A second official said a fabricated text would be a major blow to Habba's side, though the doubts wouldn't necessarily clear Grenell. The official described the whole saga as a disaster for both of them. Both officials stressed that no conclusion has been reached.
White House counsel has asked Habba's lawyers to prove the text came from Grenell's phone, and the second official said nothing had been handed over. A source close to Habba pushed back, telling The Daily Mail her attorneys had already given Trump's team everything it needed. Grenell's lawyers have promised a forensic audit of his phone but hadn't produced one as of Monday night, the second official said.
The White House has shelved any decision until after the midterms to keep the feud from becoming a distraction in the campaign's final week, the second official said.
Habba, Grenell and Mildon all declined further comment to The Daily Mail.
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