Former Trump lawyer Alina Habba Mildon faces state ethics complaint
Alina Habba Mildon at the White House in March 2025. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics filed a disciplinary complaint Tuesday against Alina Habba Mildon—a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump and a former acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey—over her role in settling a 2021 sexual harassment dispute at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where she was a paying member.
Reuters reported Wednesday that regulators alleged that Mildon steered a 21-year-old club employee, Alice Bianco, into a $15,000 settlement of misconduct claims against her boss.
According to Reuters, Mildon allegedly persuaded Bianco to stop communicating with her attorney, potentially confusing Bianco into thinking that Mildon was acting as her lawyer. The complaint also alleged that Mildon undervalued the claims in a way that benefited the club and did not disclose her financial ties to it. Mildon became a personal lawyer to Trump soon afterward.
Bianco later hired attorney Nancy Smith, who sued the club in 2023 and settled for $400,000. In a statement to Reuters, Smith claimed that Mildon “got my client to terminate her lawyer, accept a ridiculously low settlement, and agree to an illegal non-disclosure agreement, silencing her.”
Smith added that she thought that Mildon’s “numerous ethics violations in that scenario should result in disbarment.”
Mildon’s attorney, Kim Ringler, told Reuters that “the complaint starts a long process for resolving issues about conduct that took place more than five years ago.”
The complaint adds to Mildon’s recent troubles. A federal judge ruled last year that her appointment as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor was unlawful. Trump also publicly called a $50 million contract that she obtained while at the Department of Justice “unacceptable,” and the New York Times reported Tuesday that she has since lost it.
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