The New Jersey Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Ethics has filed a formal complaint against Alina Habba Mildon over her role in a 2021 settlement of a sexual harassment dispute at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. The complaint alleges that Mildon, while acting as a go-between for the club, created an implied attorney-client relationship with a young employee and that the settlement devalued the worker's case. The allegations have not been resolved in a disciplinary hearing.
A Settlement Years in the Making
The complaint allows the disciplinary process to move toward a hearing, where potential penalties could range from admonition to disbarment, according to The New York Times. The case began with a grievance filed by attorney Nancy Erika Smith. The Office of Attorney Ethics docketed it for investigation on December 6, 2023, according to a complaint document obtained by the Times. The grievance concerned Mildon's handling of a sexual harassment and employment dispute involving club worker Alice Bianco.
Bianco began working at the Bedminster club in 2021 and alleged that her manager sexually harassed her. The ethics complaint says Mildon was a dues-paying club member when she brokered the deal between Bianco and management, and that she remained an active member during that process. Ethics officials cited the membership as a concurrent conflict of interest.
Bianco Says She Thought Mildon Was Her Lawyer
The complaint alleges that Bianco told Mildon she had already retained an experienced employment attorney and asked Mildon to work with that lawyer instead. It says Mildon declined and continued discussing the case and offering advice. Text messages cited in the underlying facts indicate Mildon encouraged Bianco to drop her existing counsel and work with her directly. Bianco told interviewers she understood Mildon to be acting as her lawyer. The complaint describes Bianco as 21 at the time, unfamiliar with the law and lacking meaningful support or sophistication in her dealings with Mildon.
Ethics officials allege that Mildon's conduct created an implied attorney-client relationship and that the settlement undervalued Bianco's case, according to The Washington Sun. Mildon reportedly told investigators that Bianco had sought $10,000 from the club and that she negotiated a payment exceeding that amount. Reports differ on the settlement timeline: the Sun says the club agreed to pay Bianco $15,000 on August 8, 2021, while The New Republic reports Mildon persuaded Bianco to sign the deal on August 21, 2021.
Confidentiality Clause and Record-Keeping Allegations
The complaint also alleges that the settlement agreement exposed Bianco to significant monetary penalties if she breached its confidentiality terms. The Washington Sun reports that the complaint says the club and Mildon ultimately paid Bianco a combined $400,000; the reporting does not break down how that total was reached or how much, if any, Mildon personally contributed.
The complaint also accuses Mildon of failing to maintain required law-firm records, including client ledger cards and attorney trust-account documents, The Washington Sun reports. The allegations concern her practice under the name Alina Habba, before her later public roles, including a stint as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey for part of 2025 and her earlier work representing Donald Trump in high-profile litigation, including E. Jean Carroll's rape and defamation trials and a bank fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
What Comes Next
Mildon's attorney, Kim D. Ringler, described the complaint as the first step in a long process and said it involves relatively less serious claims of professional misconduct dating back to 2021, according to The New York Times. The filing is not a final disciplinary finding; the allegations remain unresolved.
How New Jersey’s Ethics Process Works
According to New Jersey Courts, an attorney has 21 days to answer a formal ethics complaint, and a hearing is scheduled after the answer is received. The Disciplinary Review Board then reviews the case record after receiving the Office of Attorney Ethics’ recommendation and makes its own recommendation, according to New Jersey Courts; the complaint itself does not determine a sanction. A separate question raised by the allegations is how state law treats confidentiality terms in harassment settlements. A 2019 New Jersey law says provisions in employment contracts or settlements that conceal details of discrimination, retaliation or harassment claims are against public policy and unenforceable against the employee, according to the New Jersey Legislature. That general rule does not by itself establish whether the specific agreement in this case violated the law.
Habba previously defended her conduct in the Bianco matter, telling CNN in 2023 that she always conducts herself ethically and acted no differently in this circumstance, according to CNN, which also reported that Bianco had filed a separate lawsuit against the golf club alleging harassment by her manager and pressure to sign an illegal nondisclosure agreement. A later report from The New Republic noted that Bianco settled a separate case she had brought against Habba on August 27, though the terms of that settlement were not disclosed. New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics, which investigates complaints against the state's attorneys and recommends discipline, has not announced a hearing date, and no final sanction against Mildon has been determined.
