Julio Herrera Velutini got a Trump pardon after his family hired Alina Habba for a $50 million job, per a report the former attorney calls false.

The New York Times detailed the sequence on Tuesday: the Venezuelan banker’s relatives set up Concord Partners, installed Habba as general counsel on a proposed multi-year deal, and the unconditional clemency followed later the same month she started. The Independent carried the account of the hiring, the pay figures, and the timing.

Herrera Velutini had been indicted in 2022 on charges tied to an alleged scheme to bribe Puerto Rico’s governor. Three years later he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation under a plea deal. His family, described as anxious to wipe the record clean, moved quickly once Habba became available.

Concord Partners was established by Herrera’s wife in 2025 and has no public presence. The proposed package ran $10 million a year for four years plus bonuses, a $50 million total. Sources familiar with the contract told the Times the hire was meant to help secure the pardon.

Habba’s contract was signed while she still held a U.S. attorney post

The agreement was inked while Habba served as U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. Judges later ruled that appointment unlawful. She resigned in December 2025, began work at Concord Partners in January, and the pardon came later that month. She remained a special government employee, a status that permits limited outside work under restrictions.

Habba, 42, rejected any connection. She told the Times:

"Any insinuation that my employment, all of which has been vetted and disclosed to the D.O.J., had anything to do with securing a pardon is false,"

An unnamed White House official separately said Habba was not linked to the pardon process.

President Trump has used the clemency power in a range of cases, including a Navy sailor convicted over inert collectible firearms. The Herrera matter fits the broader pattern of high-profile grants that draw immediate scrutiny.

Donor ties and a wider set of clemencies surface in coverage

Breitbart noted that Herrera Velutini is the father of Isabela Herrera, who gave $2.5 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC in 2024 and another $1 million later. The same reporting placed the banker among a recent flurry that also covered former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez in a related campaign-finance matter and other defendants once pursued by federal prosecutors.

Last year the Wall Street Journal described a cottage industry of clemency lobbying in which the going rate to advocate for a pardon sat around $1 million. The Herrera family’s proposed package sat far above that figure.

Separate reporting has kept Habba in the headlines. Axios said Monday she is tied to an alleged pay-for-influence matter now under White House review. In a distinct dispute she accused Richard Grenell, former Kennedy Center leader, of misleading her husband, Turkish billionaire Turhan Mildon, on a multimillion-dollar donation that the performing-arts center never received. Grenell called the claim “absurd.” Trump has asked White House Counsel Will Scharf to look into it.

Those side controversies arrive while other legal fights continue, among them the president’s warning that Rep. Ilhan Omar could face jail in an immigration-fraud probe.

Public distrust runs high even as the vice president draws a bright line

A September Gallup poll found a record 89 percent of Americans believe corruption is widespread throughout the U.S. government. That backdrop fuels every fresh clemency story.

Asked last week whether anything inside the White House gave him pause, Vice President JD Vance answered directly:

"D.C. is a corrupt town," "I have not seen a single shred of evidence that [Trump] participates or sanctions in that corruption."

The statement lands against the permanent incentive structure of the capital, where access and timing are always for sale and every presidential decision is instantly litigated in the press.

Similar political crossfire has appeared after other grants of mercy, including the episode in which Trump branded Rep. Henry Cuellar a loser for remaining a Democrat. Clemency remains an exclusive Article II power; the paperwork is public and the arguments never end.

Habba’s defenders stress that her Concord role was disclosed to the Justice Department and that the White House kept her outside the pardon channel. Critics point to the compressed calendar, from resignation, to first day on the new job, to the signature on the clemency warrant, and invite readers to infer a bargain. No charging document or ethics finding has converted that inference into a formal case.

The same capital that lectures on norms still runs on relationships, retainers, and well-timed asks. Senate Democrats already float future probes should they regain the House, guaranteeing the cycle continues regardless of the facts on any single warrant.

Voters can weigh the denials, the public pardon record, and the absence of hard proof of a quid pro quo. Influence will always seek a door in Washington; the question is whether the door that mattered here ever opened.