Donald Trump reportedly became furious after learning that Alina Habba Mildon, his former personal lawyer and a former administration official, had signed a $50 million contract to help secure a presidential pardon for a Venezuelan billionaire family. The arrangement was made with a company founded by the daughter of Julio Herrera Velutini, who was seeking a pardon. According to reporting by The New York Times, Trump said Habba Mildon should give some of the money to his presidential library or another organization connected to him. He also told a confidant that the family should withhold the remaining payment. Trump later called Habba Mildon, though it is unclear whether he asked her directly for a donation.
The episode is presented as evidence that Trump expects to benefit personally when people close to him profit from pardon lobbying. The account describes a broader system in which pardon seekers spend heavily to gain access to White House lawyers and the president, with Trump reportedly promising pardons to administration staff as well. His anger, in this telling, was not about the pursuit of a pardon itself, but that Habba Mildon stood to make a large sum without sharing it. Trump’s earlier displeasure that Representative Henry Cuellar remained a Democrat after receiving a pardon for corruption charges is cited as another indication that he views pardons as exchanges that should yield loyalty or some other return.
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