Alina Habba’s law license in jeopardy over quiet Trump golf club settlement: report

One of President Donald Trump's most loyal former attorneys is facing a formal ethics complaint that puts her career on the line.

Alina Habba, who now goes by Alina Habba Mildon, was charged with ethics violations by the New Jersey Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Ethics over a settlement she brokered between Trump's Bedminster golf club and a young server who had accused a club manager of sexual harassment, The Washington Sun reported Tuesday. The complaint seeks discipline that puts her license to practice law at risk.

According to the Sun, which obtained the complaint, investigators allege Habba, a dues-paying member of the club, befriended the server, Alice Bianco, and nudged her to drop the lawyer pursuing her case. Bianco was 21 at the time, and the complaint describes her as unfamiliar with the law and lacking support.

The club agreed in August 2021 to pay Bianco $15,000, and Habba's law partner drew up the settlement paperwork along with a nondisclosure agreement, the Sun reported. New Jersey law bars NDAs in workplace harassment cases, and ethics officials say the agreement threatened Bianco with steep financial penalties if she spoke out.

Less than a month later, Trump hired Habba's firm for general legal work. She went on to defend him in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud case and in E. Jean Carroll's lawsuits against him.

Ethics officials allege Habba formed an implied attorney-client relationship with Bianco and that the $15,000 deal undercut the value of her case. Habba told investigators she saw herself as a neutral party, but the complaint says she acknowledged in a June interview that her conduct broke professional conduct rules, according to the Sun.

The complaint also points to her shifting accounts, including a 2023 letter from her lawyer saying Trump had asked her to handle the dispute, a claim she later walked back. Investigators said that reflected a "cavalier attitude toward the disciplinary process."

Bianco later hired attorney Nancy Erika Smith and won an $82,500 settlement from the club. The complaint shows the club and Habba ultimately paid her $400,000 in total. Habba is also accused of failing to keep proper records at her firm, including trust account documents.

Habba served as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey for much of 2025 before several courts found she held the post unlawfully. She did not immediately respond to the Sun's request for comment.