Venezuelan family scored a Trump pardon after giving $50M job to his ex-attorney Alina Habba: report

A pardon from President Donald Trump went to Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini shortly after his family arranged a lucrative job for Alina Habba, the president's onetime lawyer, The New York Times reports. Herrera had been indicted in 2022 over an alleged plot to bribe Puerto Rico's governor and later admitted to a misdemeanor campaign finance offense under a plea agreement. The pardon, issued in January, was unconditional, according to The Independent.

According to the Times, the family offered Habba $10 million annually for four years, plus bonuses, totaling $50 million, to serve as general counsel at Concord Partners, a firm Herrera's wife founded in 2025. Habba accepted the arrangement while still U. S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, a post she quit in December 2025 after judges deemed her appointment unlawful. Unnamed sources told the Times the position was meant to help win the pardon.

Habba rejects that, telling the paper any such suggestion is false and that the Justice Department vetted and was told of her employment. A White House official also said she had no connection to the pardon process.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →