Trump Draws a Line on His Own Ex-Lawyer: Alina Habba's $50 Million Deal Is 'Not Acceptable at All'

President Trump did not defend his former lawyer. Asked Saturday night at his Mar-a-Lago Halloween party about the more than $50 million deal Alina Habba Mildon took from the family of a banker he later pardoned, Trump said he had told her he didn't want her paid.

"I thought it was terrible. I told her, and I said, I don't want her paid," Trump told reporters, in video from C-SPAN. "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," he said. "I thought it was totally obnoxious and outrageous, and it's not acceptable. Not acceptable at all."

Asked whether he expected her to give money to his presidential library, Trump said, "No, not her. I expect maybe the people. I don't know if anybody wants to make it, but it's unacceptable what she did. Unacceptable."

The deal

The New York Times reported on Oct. 20 that the family of Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan banker, made Habba Mildon general counsel of Concord Partners, a family company with no public presence. The Times said the deal paid $10 million a year for four years plus bonuses, more than $50 million guaranteed in all.

She signed on in late October 2025, while serving as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, according to the Times. After judges ruled her appointment unlawful, she resigned on Dec. 8 and was named a senior adviser to the attorney general that same day. She was still in that role when she started at Concord on Jan. 1.

Two weeks later, on Jan. 15, 2026, Trump pardoned Herrera, according to the Justice Department's clemency list. He had been indicted in 2022 in a scheme to bribe Puerto Rico's governor, and pleaded guilty in August 2025 to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation.

Her side

Habba Mildon denies the job had anything to do with the pardon. "Any insinuation that my employment, all of which has been vetted and disclosed to the D.O.J., had anything to do with securing a pardon is false," she told the Times. A White House official also told the paper she was not part of the pardon process.

She answered the story the day it ran. "After leaving public service, I've gone back to doing what I have done for my entire career: being a lawyer," she wrote on X, adding that the Times had already credited another attorney with the work.

Trump's answer Saturday was not the first sign of his anger. The Times reported Thursday that he "erupted" when he learned of the deal and told aides she should give part of the money to his library. On Saturday, he said it on camera: the deal was "unacceptable."