(Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
“The parties agree that Alina Habba is not a party to this release.”
That’s the key clause of a recent settlement between Trump’s Bedminster Club and its former server, Alice Bianco. Bianco had raised a sexual harassment claim against the club, but ended up settling out-of-court for a paltry sum and a draconian non-disclosure agreement. She probably should’ve had a lawyer.
The thing is… she did have a lawyer. But she fired her attorney upon the advice of one of the club’s regulars who promised to “help” her. That regular was Alina Habba. When Habba publicly became Trump’s bumbling consigliere, Bianco started wondering if the club-favorable settlement was a bum deal.
Bianco got an actual employment lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, and sued the club to nix the agreement. And Bianco brought receipts in the form of some damning text exchanges between her and a number she identifies as Habba’s.
Bedminster settled this month more or less returning the parties to exactly where they were before the settlement, with the club conceding that Bianco can keep the settlement money, voiding the release to allow Bianco to bring a proper lawsuit over the original sexual harassment claim, and covering Bianco’s legal fees for the settlement challenge. In exchange, Bianco released the club from the limited claim of fraudulent inducement to buy into the bogus settlement.
You know who is not released from that fraud claim?
But then comes this line out of nowhere: “The parties agree that Alina Habba is not a party to this release.” That means Habba was specifically cut out of the deal, allowing Bianco to sue her directly for the exact same issues.
Bianco’s lawyer said the line was included to make sure Habba isn’t off the hook.
“My client is certainly considering suing her for fraud,” Smith said last week, noting that she is already in communication with Habba’s attorney.
On the one hand, the club has no obligation to help settle this on Habba’s behalf. Their duty is to protect the club, not take responsibility for a patron dispensing questionably conflicted legal advice between photoshopping herself by the pool. On the other hand, there was a zero percent chance that anyone reading that clause would take away any interpretation other than the club washing its hands of Habba like Pontius Pilate with severe OCD.
So the Trump club left its boss in the awkward position of having thrown his very public-facing attorney under the bus as potentially liable for fraud.
But maybe the optics don’t matter when your attorney is already partially on the hook for almost a million in sanctions.
Trump Golf Club Settlement Hangs Alina Habba Out to Dry [Daily Beast]
Earlier: Alina Habba, You Got Some ‘Splainin’ To Do!
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
