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Alina Habba, one of Donald Trump's top lawyers, faces the risk of a lawsuit for allegedly tricking Alice Bianco, an ex-employee of his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, into signing a nondisclosure agreement after she was allegedly sexually harassed by a supervisor.
The Trump-owned golf club last week settled Bianco's lawsuit alleging the business silenced her after she was sexually harassed in 2021 by a food and beverage manager. However, the settlement leaves open the possibility that Habba, who has represented the former president in some of his high-profile criminal cases, could face a lawsuit, according to a new report.
Bianco's attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, told The Daily Beast she is considering filing a new lawsuit against Habba, as the settlement notes that "the parties agree that Alina Habba is not a party to this release."
"My client is certainly considering suing her for fraud," Smith told the outlet.
Smith added that her legal team got "everything we asked for," including the agreement being voided and the right to sue Habba for fraud, as well as the club for sexual harassment, according to the report.
"She has her voice back, which is why she came to me. She was illegally silenced and now she can speak whenever she wants," Smith said.
Newsweek reached out to Habba's law firm via email and Smith via her online contact form for comment.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek that Bianco "may have a good case against Habba if Habba violated her duty of loyalty."
"Habba would argue that the agreement and NDA were in the best interests of her client. Habba may also face disciplinary proceedings if it's proven that she had a conflict of interest and did not act in her client's best interests. That would be a clear ethical violation and a state bar issue," Rahmani said.
Bianco's lawsuit alleged that days after filing a written notice of the alleged harassment, Habba approached her "pretending to be' a friend'" and wanting to "help her." Habba allegedly encouraged Bianco to fire her lawyer while "clearly working to protect Donald Trump's interests" to "groom" her to agree to a favorable settlement with Trump.
According to the lawsuit, Habba allegedly "poisoned" Bianco's relationship with her attorney by sending her a "disparaging" post about him, leaving her with no legal representation. She then allegedly advised Bianco not to hire another lawyer because "attorneys want to take control of you."
She ultimately agreed to a $15,000 settlement under the conditions that she could never mention it to anyone, and that the club would pay taxes on the settlement. However, Bianco later learned that Habba had allegedly "not been truthful" about the club paying the taxes.
Under the NDA terms, if Bianco were to speak about the alleged harassment, she would lose the money and have to pay $1,000 per day for violating it, according to the lawsuit.
Months later when Bianco reached out to Habba asking about the taxes, Habba responded by telling her, "I cant technically give u legal advice." After a few more brief exchanges, Habba allegedly stopped communicating with Bianco.
"Working secretly to help defendant and Donald Trump, Ms. Habba fraudulently induced Ms. Bianco to agree to a paltry settlement for a quid pro quo sexual harassment case and included in the settlement agreement drafted by her law firm illegal terms that violate New Jersey law about non-disclosure agreements," the lawsuit reads.
Update 3/19/24, 12:07 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Neama Rahmani.
About the writer
Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more