US President Donald Trump has criticised a $50 million contract secured by his former personal lawyer Alina Habba Mildon with a company linked to a Venezuelan banking family, saying the arrangement was unacceptable while she held a position at the Justice Department.Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday, Trump described the deal as “totally obnoxious and outrageous”. He also said he had told Habba Mildon that he did not want her to receive the money.“I thought it was terrible,” Trump said. “I told her, and I said, ‘I don’t want her paid.’ I thought we had somebody speak to the people that did it, and she used her relationship to do that. And it was far too much.”The New York Times reported last week that the family of Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini had guaranteed Habba Mildon more than $50 million over four years to serve as general counsel at Concord Partners. The reported agreement included an annual payment of $10 million, along with additional bonuses.According to the newspaper, Habba Mildon signed the contract in late October 2025 while serving as acting US attorney for New Jersey. Concord Partners, the company linked to Herrera’s family, had been registered only days earlier.The timing of the agreement has drawn attention because Herrera was facing federal bribery charges in the US and his family was seeking a presidential pardon. He reached a plea agreement in August 2025 before Trump granted him a pardon on January 15, this year, according to the DOJ’s website.Habba Mildon’s employment with the family also overlapped with her transition between government positions. A court had disqualified her from continuing as US attorney before she began working for the Herrera family. She resigned from the position on December 8, last year and was appointed a senior adviser to the attorney general on the same day.She began working with Concord Partners on January 1 while holding the senior adviser position.Habba Mildon has denied any connection between her employment arrangement and Herrera’s pardon. Last week, she said she had never received payment for securing a pardon, had not discussed the matter with anyone at the White House or Justice Department and had performed no work to obtain clemency for anyone.Trump’s remarks followed questions about the reported financial agreement and its timing in relation to Herrera’s pardon. The president said he had objected to the payment and considered the arrangement inappropriate.It remains unclear whether the four-year contract can be terminated before its scheduled completion.
