Alina Habba Accused of 'Grooming' Trump Employee After Sexual Assault

Alina Habba, one of Donald Trump's top lawyers, is being accused of "grooming" a former employee of the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, after the worker was allegedly sexually harassed by a supervisor.

Alice Bianco, a former Trump National Golf Club server who filed a lawsuit against the club Wednesday, said Habba, who was a club member, groomed her into believing she was her friend after finding out that the then-21-year-old was allegedly being sexually harassed by food and beverage manager Pavel Melichar.

In the lawsuit, Bianco alleges that she was sexually harassed and coerced into sex by Melichar in 2021 and that Habba later tricked Bianco into signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that was ultimately drafted by Habba's firm. Neither Trump nor Melichar are named as defendants in the suit.

Habba is a key figure on Trump's legal team. She began representing the former president after he left office in 2021 and has represented him in both a civil fraud suit in New York state and Trump's lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and dozens of former Justice Department and FBI officials. Habba and Trump were ordered to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions to the 31 defendants, including Clinton, they sued in the "completely frivolous" Florida lawsuit, in the words of the judge in the case.

Newsweek reached out to Habba via email for comment.

In the lawsuit, Bianco said she had not been aware that Habba worked as an attorney for Trump until weeks after she signed the NDA, although she had seen her sit with the former president at dinner on a number of occasions and had waited on her before.

Bianco alleges that Melichar forced her "to engage in sex as a quid pro quo for continued employment and 'protection'" when she worked at the club. After Melichar's behavior was reported to Trump's personal staff by a co-worker, she was contacted by human resources, Bianco said.

Once the matter was brought to the attention of the club, Habba approached her, "pretending to be a friend," and offered to help her, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit also says that Habba texted Bianco to check in on her, sent her links to disparaging posts about Melichar and fomented "distrust" between Bianco and her lawyer because she advised the former server to ignore her lawyer's texts, emails and calls until she was left with "no legal representation."

The suit quotes Habba as telling Bianco, "You don't want to go public with this. I've been raped, I can help you, I can protect you."

The suit continues: "During the next couple days, Ms. Habba continued the process of grooming Plaintiff, pretending that they were friends, calling and texting her, stating that she only wanted to help her 'two really good friends,' meaning Ms. Bianco and Donald Trump."

Habba allegedly told Bianco that the NDA would be tax-free and that she would get her therapy paid for as part of the deal as long as she abided by the settlement and did not tell anyone about the agreement. Neither of those things was true, according to the suit, and New Jersey has barred NDAs in cases of workplace harassment since 2019.

"Acting secretly on behalf of defendant [the club] and Donald Trump, Habba pressured Plaintiff, who was unrepresented by counsel, to sign a Settlement Agreement with a paltry payment and an illegal NDA by saying 'you have to do this now' and telling her to sign the Agreement right away," the suit says.

Bianco's lawyers said that when she reached out to Habba during tax season, the Trump attorney told the server she couldn't help with legal advice.

"What Ms. Habba really meant by saying, 'I can't technically give u legal advice' was that she was now done with Plaintiff," the suit says. "Habba didn't need to text heart emojis anymore, she had accomplished her goal of protecting Donald Trump and of silencing Ms. Bianco."

Bianco is asking for a permanent injunction that would block the Trump National Golf Club from enforcing the NDA, a declaration that the NDA is void and a referral of Habba to New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics for ethics violations. She is also asking for the club to pay her attorneys' fees and costs.