Alina Habba Mildon’s firing leaves one big question hanging

MRMaya Reyes · Progressive · Nov 11 at 10:55 AM

The Habba Concord contract ended with a termination letter dated November 4. Concord Partners, a Florida company founded by Isabela Herrera, the daughter of Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, said Alina Habba Mildon had failed to perform her duties. The firing cuts off most of a four-year agreement reported as worth $50 million. She keeps $6.5 million already paid and an $8 million signing bonus. A person close to Habba Mildon says she plans to pursue legal action; she declined to comment. Representatives for the Herrera family also declined to comment. The New York Times first reported the firing and the contract’s terms, as its report detailed.

Habba Mildon joined Concord as general counsel on January 1. At the same time, she held a senior advisory role with the attorney general. Her special government employee status permits limited federal service alongside outside work, subject to conflict-of-interest restrictions. The reports say Concord hired her to assist with the company’s operations and Herrera Velutini’s criminal case, but the full scope of her work remains unclear. A source familiar with the Herrera family told the Times her attention seemed to shift from Concord after she started seeing Turkish investor Turhan Mildon. The couple married in September.

The timing is what gave the contract its political charge. Herrera Velutini had faced felony bribery charges connected to Puerto Rico. An August 2025 plea agreement reduced the case to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation. His legal team was seeking a pardon. Around the same period, his daughter, Concord’s founder, gave $3.5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. Weeks after Habba Mildon started at the firm, President Donald Trump granted Herrera Velutini a full pardon. The sequence is documented; what it proves is disputed. Habba Mildon has denied that her employment had anything to do with obtaining the pardon. She said her work had been disclosed to the Justice Department. No report provided here establishes that she secured the pardon or that the contract bought one.

Trump’s own response added another layer. After the deal became public last month, he called it unacceptable and said he had told Habba Mildon he did not want her paid. He urged the Herrera family to stop the payments. Reports say he also suggested she give money to his future presidential library or a charity. The president can grant pardons, but the contract was private. The public has been left to parse that deal, a pardon, a campaign contribution and his complaint about someone else’s pay. The Trump Organization is a privately owned conglomerate with hundreds of affiliates using the Trump name, a reminder that the president’s political and commercial worlds are unusually intertwined (background on the organization).

The firing does not resolve the questions around either the pardon or the contract. The Herrera family’s reported explanation is that Habba Mildon did not adequately perform her job. Its source also connected the alleged shift in priorities to her relationship. That is the company’s stated rationale, not an independent finding about her work. Habba Mildon reportedly plans to take legal action. The dispute may continue in court, where the agreement and termination could receive closer scrutiny. The case also sits within a broader political climate in which the use of government power against perceived opponents has been described as a feature of the second Trump administration (an overview of that context). That background does not itself establish wrongdoing in this matter.

There are other strands, but they should not be confused with proof about the contract. Reports describe a White House inquiry after Habba Mildon accused former Trump official Richard Grenell of mishandling money said to have been donated by her husband. White House officials said their review found that $17.6 million came from a Congolese government account rather than Turhan Mildon personally. Grenell has denied the allegation. The reports differ over the donation’s amount and destination: one describes $17.6 million, while another refers to $5.6 million and the Kennedy Center. The discrepancy matters; the available reports do not establish a single settled account. Coverage has also tracked separate scrutiny of Habba Mildon’s professional ethics, but that issue is not a finding about why Concord fired her.

For my part, the termination makes the story more consequential, not less. A contract can end while the questions about access, money and official power remain open. The next answers may come from Habba Mildon’s threatened legal action, further reporting, or records that clarify what her job involved and how the pardon process unfolded. Until then, the facts support scrutiny, not a verdict.