Former Trump lawyer Alina Mildon slams ‘pathetic’ New York Times for suggesting she was offered $50m deal to help secure a pardon
Former Trump lawyer Alina Mildon has hit out at The New York Times for suggesting she got her new $50 million legal role to help secure a pardon.
In an article published on Tuesday, reporter Tyler Pager noted that Mildon, nee Habba, has taken on a role as general counsel at Concord Partners, a Florida-based company Isabela Herrera set up in October 2025.
Just weeks after she joined the company, Herrera’s father, billionaire banker Julio Herrera Velutini was pardoned by President Donald Trump for a misdemeanor campaign finance violation.
Sources familiar with Habba’s contract have since told The Times they believed she was brought in to help with Velutini’s push for a pardon as they expressed their shock over the scale of compensation.
But Mildon flatly denied the claims in a post on X.
‘Big Scoop: After leaving public service, I’ve gone back to doing what I have done for my entire career: being a lawyer,’ she wrote, sarcastically.
She then argued that ‘if The New York Times simply went back and looked at their own reporting, they have already credited another capable attorney for what he successfully did without me and took credit for.
‘Any insinuation that my employment – all of which has been vetted and disclosed to the DOJ – had anything to do with securing a pardon is false and defamatory,’ Mildon declared.
Former Trump lawyer Alina Mildon, nee Habba, lashed out at The New York Times on Tuesday for suggesting she was paid $50 million to help secure a pardon from the president
Mildon denied the claims on X, arguing they are ‘false and defamatory.’ Source: X/@AlinaHaba
Velutini was charged in August 2022 for his role in a scheme to bribe Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vazquez to dismiss a regulator who was investigating his bank.
Velutini, Vazquez and a former FBI agent who worked as a consultant for Velutini had originally pleaded not guilty to the felony charges against them.
But attorney Christopher M Kise later helped negotiate a deal with federal prosecutors under which Velutini pleaded guilty in August 2025 to a single misdemeanor campaign finance charge.
Vazquez and the former FBI agent soon followed suit, also pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges.
Still, Velutini worried that the reduced charge would still stain his record – and he soon deployed Kise, a former Florida solicitor general who was on Trump’s personal legal team, to help him with a plea for clemency, according to The Times.
At around the same time, Velutini’s 27-year-old daughter, Herrera, donated $3.5 million to a super PAC tied to Trump.
As the family was still awaiting a decision on the clemency application, the Herrera family hired Mildon, who at the time was an adviser to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The family offered Mildon $10 million a year for four years along with a range of bonuses. In total, the Times reports, she was guaranteed more than $50 million over four years as general counsel for Concord Partners.
Billionaire banker Julio Herrera Velutini received a pardon for a misdemeanor campaign finance violation from the president in January
Mildon then finalized her deal with the family just days after the company was registered, while still serving as a US attorney in New Jersey.
She was also serving as a senior adviser to then Attorney General Pam Bondi, overseeing US attorneys across the nation as a special government employee, which allows individuals to work for the federal government for up to 130 days and maintain outside employment with conflict of interest restrictions.
In that position, Mildon was granted an office at the DOJ, and due to her position in New Jersey, she had protective detail from US Marshals.
Mildon then resigned from her position as the US Attorney for New Jersey after a panel of federal judges ruled that her appointment to the position was carried out unlawfully.
She then formally began working for Concord Partners on January 1, 2026, the Times reports. Just two weeks later, on January 15, Trump granted the banker a ‘full and unconditional pardon.’
But a spokesperson for the DOJ told the Times that Habba did not speak to anyone about a pardon.
A White House official also told the outlet that Habba had nothing to do with the president’s decision to grant Velutini a pardon – saying that the Trump administration follows a pardon review process that includes the White House Counsel’s Office and the DOJ.
Habba claimed that the media is trying to attack her and her new husband, 29-year-old Turkish billionaire Turhan Mildon
She urged her followers not to let the report ‘distract you from the amazing work this president and administration has done’
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In her post attacking the outlet for the article, Habba lashed out at the reporter for using her maiden name in the article, calling him an ‘activist “journalist”‘ who has written ‘many hit pieces on me and my family.’
She argued that the paper was using her maiden name for clicks on its stories, calling the move ‘intentional, pathetic and obvious.’
‘I have stayed silent while the media attacked my husband, my friends and me over the past week,’ Mildon continued, mentioning her new husband, 29-year-old Turkish billionaire Turhan Mildon.
‘My entire public career has been dedicated to calling out the radical left and the fake news,’ she noted. ‘Anyone who thought that would change hasn’t been paying attention.’
‘We are 14 days away from the election – this is just another October surprise,’ Mildon then argued, as she urged her followers to ‘not let left wing media distract you from the amazing work this president and administration has done.
‘I know this game all too well,’ she concluded.
The Daily Mail has reached out to The New York Times, the DOJ and the White House for comment.
