Alina Habba Mildon faces potential bar discipline in New Jersey after the state’s attorney ethics office brought a complaint against the lawyer known for representing President Donald Trump.

The accusation stems from her role in the settlement of a sexual harassment employment dispute between one of Trump’s golf clubs and a woman who worked there as a server in 2021 when she was 21.

Mildon didn’t represent Trump at the time. She didn’t officially represent either side of the dispute, which is part of the alleged problem. In addition to claiming that she failed to keep records properly, the ethics office said that Mildon violated rules on conflicts of interest and acting as a neutral third party.

It remains to be seen what comes of the complaint, which is only one step in a process that is overseen by the state’s highest court. Mildon won’t necessarily face any consequences, and if she does, there’s a wide range of options, from a warning to disbarment.

Myriad Trump-aligned lawyers have been sanctioned, most notably for their role in Trump’s failed bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden. One of them, John Eastman, is currently appealing his California disbarment to the U.S. Supreme Court, framing the stakes as “the ability of attorneys fiercely to advocate for their clients without fear of politicized disbarment.”

The backdrop for the complaint against Mildon is a far cry from the anti-democratic effort that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. This one emanates from a more provincial affair that unfolded later that year at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The ethics complaint recounted that Alice Bianco was hired there as a server that spring, shortly after which, she said, a manager began harassing her. She hired a lawyer to represent her against the club. But according to the complaint, Mildon, who was a member, convinced Bianco to stop working with that lawyer.

“Left without counsel,” the filing said, “Bianco then relied entirely on Respondent [Mildon], who convinced her that she should settle the dispute because Bianco’s perceived past indiscretions might be made public.”

The complaint described the server as “unfamiliar with the law” and lacking “meaningful support and sophistication in matters of work, education and life experience.” It said that Mildon then arranged for a $15,000 settlement — $5,000 more than Bianco had sought — while getting the server to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which is illegal under New Jersey law.

Trump formally retained Mildon less than a month after the settlement.

‘Demonstrably divided loyalties’

Bianco hired another lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, and brought a lawsuit alleging that Mildon fraudulently got her to sign the agreement. The club and Mildon paid Bianco $400,000 to settle that suit. Smith filed a bar grievance against Mildon, prompting an investigation that led to Tuesday’s complaint.

The New York Times reported that a lawyer for Mildon, Kim Ringler, called the filing “the first step in a long process” and expressed a desire to reach “a fair and proportionate result.” Presumably, from Mildon’s perspective such a result would fall well short of disbarment.

The complaint said that in a June interview she “acknowledged her actions violated” the rules regarding conflicts of interest and third-party neutrality. The filing doesn’t detail what she said, but the scope of her purported admission could become clearer as the next phase of these proceedings plays out, including with a forthcoming hearing.

The state faulted Mildon for not disclosing in writing to Bianco that the lawyer “had a financial relationship with the Golf Club and a personal interest in continued membership.” It accused her of having “demonstrably divided loyalties.”

Yet the filing is perhaps as notable for what it declines to allege. It refused to claim, as the grievance did, that Mildon committed other ethics violations through comments she made to the media during subsequent unrelated litigation involving Trump. The ethics office said it couldn’t prove those claims to the required standard of clear and convincing evidence.

It also said it lacked sufficient proof to allege that Mildon was acting “under a secret agreement with Mr. Trump individually or with the Trump Organization.”

Yet it also expressed “significant concerns as to the veracity of” Mildon’s “factual recitation.” Those worries stem from Mildon’s initial claim (through a lawyer’s letter) in 2023 that Trump had “asked her to handle an internal employee dispute for the club which she successfully did.” She disavowed that statement three years later, chalking it up to another lawyer’s error. Even if that’s true, the complaint said that it at least “reflects a cavalier attitude toward the disciplinary process.”

The ethics allegation is unrelated to court rulings that said Mildon served unlawfully as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor during Trump’s second term in office. It also comes as she made news for losing a $50 million contract from a family company that she had obtained weeks before Trump pardoned the family’s patriarch.

Trump and Mildon are separately trying to persuade the Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling that approved almost $1 million in sanctions against them for bringing legal claims that the court said “were indeed frivolous.”

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