Billionaire received pardon after family company hired former Trump lawyer Alina Habba
Alina Habba at the White House in March 2025. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
A Venezuelan billionaire was trying to win a pardon from President Donald Trump’s administration when Alina Habba, Trump’s former lawyer, was given a role as a general counsel in a company set up by the billionaire’s daughter.
The deal with Habba was worth more than $50 million over four years, according to a story by the New York Times.
Julio Herrera Velutini had faced felony bribery charges, but he ended up in a plea agreement in August 2025 for a misdemeanor campaign finance violation.
In January 2026, a few weeks after Habba started her work at the company, Trump granted Herrera a full pardon for the misdemeanor violation.
Habba was finalizing her role at the company while she was still serving as the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey and as a senior adviser to former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to the New York Times.
“Any insinuation that my employment—all of which has been vetted and disclosed to the DOJ—had anything to do with securing a pardon is false,” Habba said in a statement.
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