Trump pardoned billionaire charged with bribery after family bankrolled Alina Habba: NYT

A billionaire charged with bribery won a pardon from President Donald Trump after his family handed a lucrative contract to one of the president's loyalists.Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan banking heir, received a full pardon early this year after his daughter's company hired Alina Habba, Trump's former personal attorney, under a deal guaranteeing her more than $50 million across four years, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Habba was serving as a senior adviser at the Justice Department when she signed on.Federal prosecutors charged Herrera in 2022 over an alleged plot to bribe then-Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vazquez into firing a regulator who was examining his bank. In August 2025, he pleaded guilty to a lone misdemeanor campaign finance violation, a bargain that left career prosecutors unhappy.Even that reduced conviction bothered Herrera, according to The Times. He brought in Christopher Kise, a former member of Trump's personal legal team, to...