Alina Habba landed a deal worth more than $50 million from the family of a billionaire who wanted a Trump pardon. Weeks after she started, he got it. Now Donald Trump is angry, and not about the pardon. According to The New York Times, he wants some of the money for his presidential library.
Trump Erupted
Trump erupted last week after learning the size of the contract his former personal lawyer had signed, the Times reported Thursday. He told aides and allies she should donate part of it to his future presidential library or another Trump-related entity.
He also told at least one ally that the family should stop paying out the rest of the contract, and that message reached them. Trump called Habba, who now goes by Alina Habba Mildon, to talk about the deal. The Times says it’s not known whether he asked her for a donation directly or only suggested it to others.
The $50 Million Job
The family belongs to Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan billionaire banker. His daughter, Isabela Herrera, set up a Florida company called Concord Partners in late October 2025. Days later, Habba signed on as its general counsel. The pay was $10 million a year for four years, plus bonuses, for more than $50 million guaranteed.
Concord Partners has no public profile. The Times reported that even some people around the Herrera business empire don’t know what it does. People familiar with the contract told the paper they believed Habba was brought in to help with the pardon push, and they were surprised by the size of the pay.
She Was Still at the Justice Department
When Habba finalized the deal, she was a senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi, overseeing U.S. attorneys. She had a Justice Department office and a U.S. Marshals protective detail left over from her time as Trump’s U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
She left that post in December 2025 after federal judges ruled her appointment was unlawful. Because she was a special government employee, she could legally hold an outside job under conflict-of-interest rules. She says the Justice Department vetted and approved it.
Then Came the Pardon
Herrera Velutini was charged in 2022 in an alleged scheme to bribe Puerto Rico’s governor into firing a regulator who was investigating his bank. In August 2025 he got an unusually lenient plea deal for a single misdemeanor campaign finance charge. Career prosecutors had wanted tougher sentences.
Habba started at Concord Partners on Jan. 1, 2026. Weeks later, Trump gave Herrera Velutini a full and unconditional pardon. He pardoned the former governor and a former FBI agent who’d worked for the banker at the same time, shortly before all three were due to be sentenced.
The Family Kept Paying
Habba wasn’t the family’s only bet. Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC, while her father was seeking a pardon. The Washington Post later revealed she had also pledged $2.5 million to Trump’s White House ballroom, one month after the plea deal.
The banker’s lawyer was Christopher Kise, who had been on Trump’s own personal legal team. Trump called Kise last week too, asking about Habba’s work for the family. Kise declined to comment to the Times.
Pay to Play, Then Pay the Library
This is becoming a pattern. Earlier this month, Republican strategists James Blair and Chris LaCivita were caught taking consulting fees from a pro-Russian government in Bosnia. After Trump publicly distanced himself, they donated the full fees to his presidential library.
Trump said he didn’t explicitly ask them to. He told reporters “they took the money and they gave it to essentially a charity.” He is trying to raise $1 billion for the library, planned for Miami.
What They Say
Habba denies any role in the pardon. On X, she called the suggestion that her job helped secure it “false and defamatory.” The Justice Department said she didn’t speak to anyone about a pardon. A White House official said she had nothing to do with it and that pardons go through a review process.
The White House didn’t respond to the Times about Trump’s calls. Habba didn’t say whether she has given anything to the library, and the Herrera family didn’t comment. No one has been charged with any crime over the deal or the pardon.
The Bottom Line
A billionaire’s family spread money around Trump’s orbit, and the billionaire walked away with a pardon. Trump’s problem isn’t how that looks. His problem is that someone else got paid. When a Republican president thinks he’s owed a cut, the pardon system is no longer justice, it’s a business.
Sources: The New York Times (Tyler Pager, Oct. 20 report, and Oct. 29 follow-up), via syndicated copies; The Washington Post via Primera Hora; The Hill; Quartz; ABA Journal; Daily Mail.