Billionaire pardoned after hiring Trump’s ex-lawyer for $50M: NYT

0 October 22, 2026 17:21

Trump ally Alina Habba accepted a job that would pay her $50 million even as she served as a top adviser in Trump’s Justice Department — shortly before the billionaire Venezuelan banker who hired her got a pardon he had been seeking. She denied any role in the pardon.

The New York Times’ Tyler Pager reported that Alina Habba secured the $50 million employment deal with a company that had only recently been set up and doesn’t have a public profile. She also reportedly finalized the deal even as she was still serving as US attorney in New Jersey, and she began the job when she was serving as a special government employee advising then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Two weeks after she started her job, the Venezuelan banker who hired her — Julio Herrera Velutini — received his pardon, the Times reported.

0:00 NYT: Billionaire got Trump pardon after $50M deal with Alina Habba
0:54 Habba denies any role in the pardon
1:20 NY Times White House correspondent Tyler Pager outlines the story
4:20 AC360 panel unpacks government corruption as a key issue among voters

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