Donald J. Trump’s former personal attorney Alina Habba is facing a formal ethics complaint in New Jersey over her handling of a sexual harassment complaint involving a young waitress at Trump’s Bedminster golf club, The New York Times reports.
The state’s Office of Attorney Ethics has recommended disciplinary proceedings against Habba, alleging that she had a serious conflict of interest while helping resolve the employee’s complaint against the club.
The case dates back to 2021, when Alice Bianco, then 21, accused her supervisor at the golf club of sexually harassing her. The allegations say that the manager demanded sex in exchange for allowing her to keep her job.
Habba, a dues-paying member of the club, became friendly with Bianco and began getting involved in the dispute. Investigators say Habba exchanged text messages with the young woman and encouraged her to stop communicating with her original attorney.
After Bianco was left without legal representation, Habba helped negotiate a $15,000 settlement with the golf club. The ethics complaint argues that the agreement was substantially more favorable to the club than to Bianco. What a shocker.
The settlement also included a nondisclosure agreement containing provisions that violated New Jersey law, which prohibits employers from using such agreements to silence workers reporting discrimination or harassment.
Investigators say Habba’s divided loyalties created an unacceptable conflict of interest. Although she maintained that she was simply acting as a neutral intermediary, ethics officials concluded that she could not reasonably have been neutral given her membership in the club.
The complaint also alleges that Habba’s actions caused Bianco to believe she was receiving legal representation, creating an implied attorney-client relationship without properly defining her role.
Bianco eventually hired another attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, who pursued legal action against both Habba and the golf club. That litigation resulted in a $400,000 settlement paid by Habba and the club.
The disciplinary complaint also calls into question Habba’s handling of financial records at her law firm, including requirements involving client accounts and trust-account documentation.
Habba’s attorney, Kim Ringler, characterized the complaint as the beginning of a lengthy process and described the allegations as relatively narrow. She said the defense would work toward a fair and proportionate outcome.
The matter will now go to a special ethics adjudicator, who will conduct a hearing and make a recommendation. Possible penalties range from a formal reprimand to disbarment, and the New Jersey Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether Habba should face professional discipline.
As C&L’s Red Painter noted in 2023, “It would only be fitting if she were to lose her license to practice law as a consequence for working with Donald Trump.”
The complaint follows Habba’s turbulent tenure as New Jersey’s acting U.S. attorney, a position she eventually left after federal judges ruled her appointment unlawful.
And the ethics investigation isn’t the only recent controversy surrounding Trump’s former lawyer. She was also recently fired from a lucrative position with a company connected to Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, whose family had guaranteed her a reported $50 million contract before Trump pardoned him. “The best people,” you guys.