President Trump is taking aim at former personal lawyer Alina Habba after a New York Times report described a contract worth more than $50 million involving the family of Venezuelan billionaire Julio Herrera Velutini. The report said the arrangement allegedly calls for $10 million annually for four years, plus bonuses. That is not the sort of number that quietly slips through Washington’s revolving door, especially when a presidential pardon appears in the same timeline.
At a Halloween party held at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump was asked to respond. He described Habba’s actions as “totally obnoxious and outrageous” and said they were not acceptable. That answer was short, blunt, and about as subtle as a jack-o’-lantern under a spotlight. Apparently, even a holiday party could not persuade Washington to use an indoor voice.
The reported contract is where the controversy gets serious. The New York Times account said President Trump became furious after learning Habba had secured the deal and told aides and allies she should donate part of the money to his future presidential library or another Trump-related entity. He also reportedly told at least one ally that the Herrera family should not pay the rest of the contract, a message that reached the family. The report said President Trump spoke with Habba directly, though it was not known whether he explicitly asked her to make a donation or merely suggested it to others. That distinction is not a minor detail, because a private suggestion and a direct request are not the same thing. The report also said the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Timing is driving much of the scrutiny. Habba formally began work for the Herrera family on Jan. 1, according to the report. Weeks later, President Trump granted Herrera a full and unconditional pardon for a misdemeanor campaign finance violation. Herrera had faced felony bribery charges but struck an unusually lenient plea deal in 2025, the report said. Habba has denied that the contract had anything to do with the pardon and previously said she played no role in it.
The company that hired Habba, Concord Partners, has little public profile, and the report said its business remained unclear even to some people associated with Herrera’s business empire. The contract’s early termination status was also unclear. That leaves ordinary questions on the table: What exactly was Habba being hired to do? Why were the terms so rich? And why did the pardon arrive so soon after her work began? Asking those questions is not the same as issuing a verdict. It is what people do when a $50 million-plus contract, a pardon, and political connections land in the same story.
The article also mentioned a separate dispute involving Habba, her new husband, and Ric Grennell. It said Habba had recently married a 25-year-old billionaire and then reportedly made accusations connected to an alleged $5.6 million donation by her husband to the Kennedy Center. The money apparently never reached the Kennedy Center, while Grennell denied Habba’s claims. That issue is separate from the Venezuelan contract, but it was included as part of the broader account surrounding Habba.
Habba previously served as President Trump’s personal lawyer and briefly as U.S. attorney in New Jersey. The report did not establish whether the Herrera family planned to alter the contract, and neither the family nor Habba provided answers on the deal’s future. President Trump has now made his public view plain in unusually blunt language. The remaining story is a tangle of large fees, a pardon timeline, denials, and unanswered questions. Washington has a remarkable talent for turning a straightforward explanation into a fog machine, but this controversy is still waiting for the basic details to come into focus.
.@POTUS: "I thought it was totally obnoxious and outrageous, and it's not acceptable — at all." https://t.co/cp3232gpzg pic.twitter.com/O5hbpnn4jb
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 1, 2026
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