President Donald Trump privately blew up after learning that his one-time lawyer, Alina Habba Mildon, had signed a $50 million, no-show contract with a Venezuelan billionaire — but what appeared to bother the president most was not the arrangement itself. According to a New York Times report published this week, Trump's anger centered on the fact that she had not offered a share of the proceeds to him or to a Trump-related entity.

The Times report outlined that Trump "erupted" after learning that Habba Mildon had secured a five-year contract to work for Julio Herrera Velutini, a billionaire who had been seeking a pardon from him. The pardon did arrive — as the Times had previously reported — though Trump said it had nothing to do with Habba Mildon's involvement, even though she was a Justice Department official at the time. That overlap — a contract worth more than $50 million with a man who had sought the president's pardon, held by someone serving in the Justice Department — is where the stakes of the reporting sit.

Rather than call out what the reporting described as a blatant attempted case of pay-for-play influence, Trump's ire was directed at the conclusion "that she should donate a portion of that money to his future presidential library or another Trump-related entity, according to multiple people briefed on the conversations." He also wants Habba Mildon to turn over substantial amounts of her compensation to his presidential library effort — for which he is seeking a billion dollars in donations — or for the Herrera family to halt the contract.

Writing in an Alternet column, retired newspaper editor Terry H. Schwadron argued that, while the public may see moral or ethical alarm at rampant corruption, what Trump reportedly hears is that he is being bypassed for "a taste — or a big chunk — of any such personal proceeds." Schwadron likened the dynamic to an organized-crime storyline in which the boss does not take part but gets "to dip his beak" in the proceeds of any associates. The column, published ahead of Tuesday's election, opens with the author noting that, as Trump had asked, he is "pretending Donald Trump is on the ballot," and describing a White House that Trump is running "as a funnel for his own benefit."

The Deal and the Split

According to the reporting, Habba Mildon had been offered an "extraordinarily well compensated" role as general counsel for Concord Partners, a company started by the billionaire's daughter that has no public profile and whose business is unclear. The contract pays $10 million for each of four years, plus bonuses, for a total worth more than $50 million. Because Concord Partners has no public profile and its business is unclear, those reported terms are effectively the only public measure of what the arrangement was meant to buy — a notable gap for a no-show deal of this size.

Habba Mildon, a former personal lawyer to Trump who served briefly as a U.S. attorney in New Jersey — a role for which she was never confirmed by the Senate — has not spoken publicly about the deal. Her silence leaves the most basic questions — what the role entailed and why it commanded that price — unanswered in public.

The irony, the report noted, is that the original charges against Herrera involved bribery — the very activity at the center of an arrangement under which a pardon would erase the remaining misdemeanor charges that survived early Justice Department rollbacks in the case.

A Pattern of Monetized Access

Trump apparently spoke with another of his former lawyers, Christopher M. Kise, about advisers who are making money by selling their access to the Oval Office. Kise had worked on the pardon case. Trump has been critical when word of big consulting fees for advisers becomes public.

Earlier this month, Trump criticized James Blair and Chris LaCivita, two of his top political advisers, for being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide counsel to a pro-Russian Balkan government. The pair said they would donate their earnings to the Trump library fund.

Trump had a similar reaction when he heard stories of now former Ambassador Kimberly Gilfoyle seeking and taking big money for promised access to White House decision-making. He also privately criticized his own son, Donald Trump Jr., after word leaked that a Russian operative in Vladimir Putin's circle had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a post-wedding party for the younger Trump in Bermuda.

By contrast, Trump has been relatively silent about reports, and a new book, detailing the efforts of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Kushner's real estate partner Steve Witkoff to mix business dealings with the Saudis and other Middle Eastern leaders with diplomatic efforts representing the United States. Taken together, the episodes trace the line, as the reporting draws it, between access arrangements that draw the president's objection and those that so far have not.

Potential Congressional Review

Democratic legislators anticipating a change in majority in at least the House say they expect to open all of these cases to public review if Tuesday's election goes their way. Whether any of that happens now turns on the outcome; beyond Capitol Hill, the open questions are whether Habba Mildon breaks her public silence on the deal and whether the Herrera family keeps the contract in place rather than accepting the halt Trump has reportedly sought.

Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times and as Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times, and held leadership positions at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team was part of several Pulitzers in New York.