What gets you is the timing. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, recently wed Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, worked as a Senior Advisor at the Justice Department, and, according to a New York Times story this week, accepted a $50 million offer to become general counsel at a recently established firm called Concord Partners. On January 1st, she started working there. Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan billionaire, was pardoned by the president a few weeks later. Herrera Velutini was accused of breaking federal bribery laws in 2022, but his circumstances started to change in ways that are currently attracting a lot of attention.
The Atlantablackstar campaign is legal.
Isabela Herrera, Velutini’s daughter, founded Concord Partners, the business at the heart of this tale. As of the Times’ reporting, its true business is still unknown. It doesn’t have much of a public profile. But its most well-known hire was a woman who had proven access to the Trump administration’s top levels. It is precisely the kind of question that tends to linger in Washington without ever receiving a definitive answer: was that access the point, or did Habba just change jobs at an unfortunate time?
Herrera Velutini was pardoned by Trump in January 2026 after entering a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge in July 2025 as part of what the Campaign Legal Center called a “extraordinarily lenient plea agreement.” His initial accusations concerned a purported plan to assist in funding the campaign of Wanda Vázquez, the governor of Puerto Rico at the time, in return for the dismissal of a banking regulator who was looking into him. Later, the White House claimed that the prosecution had political motivations. That is a plausible explanation. Additionally, when a contentious pardon needs to be framed, this type of explanation is typically provided.
Campaign Legal
In February 2026, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming that Velutini, a foreign national prohibited by law from contributing to political campaigns, used his daughter as a straw donor to transfer $3.5 million to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. In addition, Isabela Herrera allegedly donated an extra $2.5 million in September 2025 to a White House ballroom project that Trump was building; this donation had not been previously reported. In January 2026, the pardon was granted. The funds had been transferred. Then came the pardon. Campaignlegal Telemundo
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Key Figure | Alina Habba (Trump’s former personal attorney; former Senior Advisor to AG Pam Bondi) |
| Billionaire Involved | Julio Herrera Velutini, Venezuelan-Italian banker |
| Velutini’s Daughter | Isabela Herrera |
| Reported Deal Amount | $50 million over 4 years |
| Habba’s New Role | General Counsel, Concord Partners (started January 1) |
| Concord Partners | Newly formed company set up by Isabela Herrera; no public profile |
| Velutini’s Original Charges | Federal bribery (related to Puerto Rico Governor’s campaign financing) |
| Plea Outcome | Reduced to misdemeanor campaign finance violation, August 2025 |
| Pardon Date | January 2026 |
| Super PAC Donation | $3.5 million to MAGA Inc. (allegedly through straw donor scheme) |
| White House Ballroom Commitment | $2.5 million (reportedly committed September 2025) |
| FEC Complaint | Filed by Campaign Legal Center, February 2026 |
| Habba’s Response | Denied any role; called claims “false and defamatory” |
| Original Report | The New York Times |
Habba made a pointed comment in his post on X. She maintained that her employment at Concord Partners had been thoroughly investigated and reported to the DOJ, and that the Times had already given credit to another lawyer, not her, for handling Velutini’s case. “It is untrue and defamatory to suggest that my employment, which has been thoroughly investigated and reported to the D.O.J., had anything to do with obtaining a pardon,” she wrote. She might be completely correct. New businesses are established. Individuals switch jobs. Pardons are granted almost simultaneously. When considered separately, none of these things prove anything.
The Daily Beast
However, it’s worth considering the issue that former DOJ pardon lawyer Liz Oyer brought up: how precisely pardons are obtained and when the process becomes apparent. These timelines typically indicate that something out of the ordinary has occurred when they are made public. It doesn’t always indicate that something unlawful has occurred. That distinction is crucial and will determine the final outcome of this story.
Observing all of this gives the impression that Habba has developed into a character who consistently draws these kinds of stories. All of them are denied by her. The denials might be true. However, the accumulation—a husband with business ties to Maduro, a time spent advising the attorney general, and now a $50 million contract with a company connected to a recently pardoned billionaire—has made her one of the more significant and contentious names in Washington right now. There is currently no clear answer to the question of whether that represents something intentional or just an odd collection of coincidences.
