Concerns regarding potential political interference and partisan challenges have heightened ahead of the scheduled opening of the new Congress on Jan. 3.
Concerns regarding potential political interference and partisan challenges have heightened ahead of the scheduled opening of the new Congress on Jan. 3.
The Trump administration has abandoned its goal to reform the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, dropping a legal fight over the changes this week. The Education Department wanted to place limits on who could qualify for PSLF, which gives student loan forgiveness to people in government and nonprofit jobs after 10 years of payments. It…
The Trump administration has abandoned its goal to reform the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, dropping a legal fight over the changes this week. The Education Department wanted to place limits on who could qualify for PSLF, which gives student loan forgiveness to people in government and nonprofit jobs after 10 years of payments. It…
Democratic leaders and election groups filed a lawsuit against President Trump and the Justice Department (DOJ) on Tuesday, seeking to block federal officials from pressuring states to remove voters from their rolls ahead of the November midterm elections. The 44-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses the DOJ…
Democratic leaders and election groups filed a lawsuit against President Trump and the Justice Department (DOJ) on Tuesday, seeking to block federal officials from pressuring states to remove voters from their rolls ahead of the November midterm elections. The 44-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses the DOJ…
Lawyers who represented Olympic canoeist David Hearn in a now-defunct criminal case alleging he vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are urging the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) internal watchdog to reconsider a probe into how the indictment and prosecution were handled. A letter sent Wednesday from Hearn’s legal team to Inspector General Don Berthiaume said…
Lawyers who represented Olympic canoeist David Hearn in a now-defunct criminal case alleging he vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are urging the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) internal watchdog to reconsider a probe into how the indictment and prosecution were handled. A letter sent Wednesday from Hearn’s legal team to Inspector General Don Berthiaume said…
But as damaging as those details were, the latest reporting from The New York Times pushes the controversy to a new level.
The surface-level details were already widely known: Velutini, a billionaire banker, was facing felony bribery and other charges in the United States, but his Trump-aligned defense attorney helped negotiate an unusually lenient plea deal in August 2025. Velutini ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation.
But that wasn’t quite enough. Velutini still hoped to wipe the slate clean altogether.
To that end, his lawyer — Christopher Kise, the former Florida solicitor general who was part of Trump’s personal legal defense team — tried to use his position to advocate on behalf of his client, and Velutini’s daughter donated $3.5 million to MAGA Inc., the super PAC the Republican president has said he controls.
But while these details are notable in their own right, the Times’ new reporting, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, adds new details related to Alina Habba Mildon, better known at the time as Alina Habba. From the article:
Then the Herrera family hired Alina Habba, who had been one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers and at the time was an adviser at the Justice Department. They offered her $10 million a year for four years along with a range of bonuses. In total, including bonuses, she was guaranteed more than $50 million over four years, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times.
Under the agreement, Ms. Habba would become general counsel at Concord Partners, a company that Ms. Herrera set up in late October 2025 in Florida. The company has no public profile and its business remains unclear even to some people associated with the Herrera business empire. Ms. Habba finalized her deal days after the company was registered, while she was still serving as U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
Mildon’s first day at Concord Partners was on Jan. 1, just a few months after the company was created. Weeks later, Trump pardoned Herrera, for reasons the president has never publicly explained or tried to defend.
For her part, Mildon, whose role on Team Trump has long been a point of contention, issued a statement via social media after the Times’ report was published, alleging that the article is part of plot hatched by “left wing media” to “distract” voters during an election season.
Mildon’s lengthy statement added, “Big Scoop: After leaving public service, I’ve gone back to doing what I have done for my entire career: being a lawyer. 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 D.O.J. — had anything to do with securing a pardon is false and defamatory.”
It’s worth emphasizing, however, that according to the Times’ reporting, Mildon didn’t just begin work in private practice after parting ways with the administration: The article specifically noted that when she began working with Velutini’s daughter, Mildon was a senior adviser to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, and “had an office at the Justice Department and a protective detail from the U.S. Marshals.”
The Times’ report added, “Ms. Herrera and Mr. Herrera did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Neither did their companies. In a statement, the Justice Department said Ms. Habba did not speak to anyone about a pardon.”
Throughout the president’s second term, Trump has faced difficult questions about his scandalous pardons, efforts to secure pardons though lucrative lobbying campaigns, and allegations that pardons might effectively be for sale in this White House.
If the latest reporting is accurate, these questions are not only poised to get louder, they’re likely to be the subject of post-midterms congressional investigations if Democrats are in the majority in either chamber.
Julio Herrera Velutini, a prominent Venezuelan, was seeking clemency. He got it not long after his daughter gave Ms. Habba, a lawyer close to President Trump, an extraordinarily lucrative job.
Julio Herrera Velutini in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in August 2022, after being charged for his role in a scheme to bribe the territory’s governor, Wanda Vázquez, to dismiss a regulator who was investigating his bank.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes shot down the Justice Department’s (DOJ) demand to not participate in a key hearing on Monday on the future of East Potomac Park, which President Trump wants to turn into a championship-style golf course. The Trump administration has alleged that Reyes is biased after she yelled at a government attorney…
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes shot down the Justice Department’s (DOJ) demand to not participate in a key hearing on Monday on the future of East Potomac Park, which President Trump wants to turn into a championship-style golf course. The Trump administration has alleged that Reyes is biased after she yelled at a government attorney…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) targeted and charged 28 California voters who are allegedly not U.S. citizens, the department said in a press release Monday. The DOJ said in the press release that on Monday, federal authorities in California arrested 11 non-Americans residing in the country “who are among 28 total charged in criminal complaints…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) targeted and charged 28 California voters who are allegedly not U.S. citizens, the department said in a press release Monday. The DOJ said in the press release that on Monday, federal authorities in California arrested 11 non-Americans residing in the country “who are among 28 total charged in criminal complaints…
Mr. Khalil had recently graduated from Columbia when he was arrested by ICE agents and became the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Mahmoud Khalil speaking in Manhattan last year. His memoir, “No Land to Stand On,” recounts his harrowing experience of being arrested in the lobby of his New York apartment building and held for months in a detention camp in Louisiana.
Government attorneys sparred with Judge Ana C. Reyes over testimony by several government witnesses about the chain of decisions surrounding East Potomac Golf Links.
The plan to begin work transforming the course in four weeks injected fresh urgency into a federal lawsuit opposing changes to East Potomac Golf Links.
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