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Reporting from Washington
President Trump erupted last week after he learned that one of his former lawyers, Alina Habba Mildon, secured a contract worth more than $50 million to work for a billionaire Venezuelan family.
Angered at the size of Mrs. Mildon’s deal, Mr. Trump has told aides and allies that she should donate a portion of that money to his future presidential library or another Trump-related entity, according to multiple people briefed on the conversations.
His fury came in response to reporting by The New York Times that Mrs. Mildon, while working as an adviser at the Justice Department, had signed on last year to serve as an extraordinarily well compensated general counsel for a company started by the daughter of Julio Herrera Velutini, who at the time was seeking a pardon from Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump told at least one ally that the Herrera family should not pay out the rest of the contract, a message that got back to them, the people said.
Mrs. Mildon, who had served earlier as a personal lawyer to Mr. Trump and then briefly as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, signed a four-year contract, and it is unclear whether the family could terminate it early. Mr. Trump also called Mrs. Mildon to discuss the contract, but it is not known whether he explicitly asked her to make a donation or only suggested it to others.
Mrs. Mildon did not respond to questions about her conversation with Mr. Trump or whether she had committed any money to the library or other Trump-related causes. The Herrera family also did not respond to requests for comment about whether they plan to make any changes to Mrs. Mildon’s employment.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about Mr. Trump’s calls.
The contract calls for the Herrera family to pay Mrs. Mildon $10 million a year for four years along with a variety of bonuses. In total, including bonuses, she was guaranteed more than $50 million over four years, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Times.
Mrs. Mildon formally began her work for the family on Jan. 1. Weeks later, Mr. Trump granted Mr. Herrera a full and unconditional pardon for his misdemeanor campaign finance violation. Mr. Herrera had faced felony bribery charges but struck an unusually lenient plea deal in 2025. Mrs. Mildon previously said she played no role in Mr. Herrera’s pardon.
The company that hired Mrs. Mildon, Concord Partners, has no public profile, and its business remains unclear even to some people associated with the Herrera business empire.
In calls with allies last week, Mr. Trump raged about the scale of the contract and said he wanted Mrs. Mildon to give a portion of the money to one of his causes.
Mr. Trump also spoke last week with Christopher M. Kise, one of his former lawyers, about The Times’s story and asked about Mrs. Mildon’s work for the Herrera family. Mr. Kise also served as Mr. Herrera’s lawyer and worked on his pardon case. Mr. Kise declined to comment on a private conversation.
Mr. Trump has, at times, chafed against the idea that his advisers are making money by selling their access to him — and has lashed out at aides when their hefty consulting fees become public.
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump distanced himself from two of his top advisers who are guiding the Republican Party’s midterm strategy after The Times reported that the men, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, were each paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide counsel to Republika Srpska, a pro-Russian Balkan government.
After Mr. Trump’s public condemnation, Mr. Blair and Mr. LaCivita said they were donating the consulting fees they earned for advising the government to Mr. Trump’s presidential library fund.
Mr. Trump suggested to reporters that he did not explicitly ask the two to make the donations.
“They took the money and they gave it to essentially a charity,” he said, adding, “I think it was a very nice thing to do.”
Mr. Trump is looking to raise $1 billion for his presidential library, which is planned for Miami.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Anger Over $50 Million Deal: President Trump erupted after he learned that one of his former lawyers, Alina Habba Mildon, secured a valuable contract to work for a billionaire Venezuelan family.
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