Alina Habba fired from $50m contract with banker’s family after Trump calls deal ‘outrageous’

Alina Habba Mildon, a former personal lawyer to US President Donald Trump, has been dismissed from her $50 million contract with a company established by the family of Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, months after Trump pardoned the billionaire.

Concord Partners terminated Habba Mildon in a letter dated November 4, citing a “failure to perform duties”, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. A person familiar with the Herrera family told the newspaper that her attention appeared to shift away from the company after she began a relationship with Turkish investor Turhan Mildon earlier this year.

Despite the termination, Habba Mildon will retain approximately $14.5 million that has already been received from the company. This includes $6.5 million in payments and an $8 million signing bonus, according to the report. Her four-year agreement had been valued at more than $50 million and included an annual payment of $10 million, in addition to various bonuses. The termination means she will no longer receive the remaining payments under the arrangement.

The decision follows public criticism from Trump after details of the contract emerged in October. The president described the deal as “totally obnoxious and outrageous” and urged the Herrera family not to pay her. Speaking to reporters at a Halloween event at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, Trump said he had objected to the arrangement and questioned the amount involved. “I thought it was terrible,” Trump said. “I told her, and I said, ‘I don’t want her paid.’ I thought we had somebody speak to the people that did it, and she used her relationship to do that. And it was far too much.”

Concord Partners was established in Florida in late 2025 by Isabela Herrera, the daughter of Julio Herrera Velutini. The billionaire banker, who belongs to a prominent Venezuelan family, had faced federal bribery charges in Puerto Rico before receiving a presidential pardon from Trump on January 15 this year.

The timing of Habba Mildon's contract had attracted scrutiny because she signed the agreement while serving in a senior government role. NYT previously reported that Mildon entered into the arrangement in late October 2025, when she was acting US attorney for New Jersey. She later resigned from that position on December 8 and was appointed a senior adviser to the attorney general on the same day. Her work with Concord began on January 1, 2026.

Habba Mildon has denied that her employment arrangement had any connection to Herrera's pardon. She previously said she had not received money to secure clemency, had not discussed the matter with anyone at the White House or Justice Department, and had done no work to obtain a pardon for anyone. A person close to her told the NYT that she was planning to take legal action against the family.