Ex-US attorney, Trump lawyer faces ethics complaint over sex harassment settlement

The New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics filed a complaint against Alina Habba Mildon, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and at one time our state’s chief federal prosecutor, alleging a slew of ethics violations surrounding a nondisclosure agreement she brokered for a server at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.

In the filing, ethics attorneys argued Mildon, while a dues-paying member at Trump’s club but not yet his attorney, failed to disclose conflicts of interest and induced Alice Bianco, a server at the golf club, to sign an agreement ceding her legal claims for a pittance at Trump’s request. Trump soon after hired Mildon.

Mildon engaged in a concurrent conflict of interest by representing Bianco “when there was a significant risk” that her representation would be “materially limited” by Mildon’s personal interests, the ethics office wrote in its complaint.

Mildon previously served as acting and interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, but she left that position when judges found she had remained in the position unlawfully after the U.S. Senate declined to take up her confirmation. She married Turhan Mildon earlier this year.

The ethics complaint stems from allegations that a manager at the club sexually harassed Bianco and coerced her into having sex with him for “protection” and under the threat of termination.

Ethics attorneys alleged Mildon befriended Bianco after a conversation with the club’s general counsel and eventually convinced her to cease contact with her attorney, who stopped representing her over the silence not long after, according to text messages included as exhibits in the case.

The case settled for $15,000 in August 2021, far less than the six-figure payout Bianco’s original attorney believed the case could yield. Bianco later sued the club for fraudulently inducing her to sign the agreement, winning a $400,000 settlement, the filing says.

Mildon in October 2024 told ethics investigators she viewed herself as a neutral third party between the server and the golf club, but she never told either party she was not their attorney — a requirement in rules of professional conduct for New Jersey attorneys — and failed to disclose her prior conversation with the club’s general counsel, the filing says.

Attorneys for Mildon did not immediately return a request for comment. The Washington Sun first reported the ethics complaint’s existence.

In a March 2023 letter, Mildon’s then-attorneys told ethics officials she interceded in the case at Trump’s request, though she later recanted, claiming the letter had been sent without being reviewed first.

Ethics officials reviewed Mildon’s business and attorney trust records to see when her financial relationship with Trump began. The records showed the earliest payment came in Sept. 2, 2021, less than a month after the settlement was entered on Aug. 11, 2021.

But the review also revealed a slew of recordkeeping violations, ethics officials alleged, including a failure to maintain records showing the flow of funds into and out of the accounts.