A White House probe into a bitter feud between two of President Donald Trump’s allies has turned up a surprise source for millions of dollars.
The $17.6 million payment at the heart of the clash between former Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell and Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal attorney, came from an account linked to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Habba, who now goes by Alina Habba Mildon, burst into the Oval Office last week and accused Grenell of siphoning millions from a 2025 business deal arranged by Turkish investor Turhan Mildon, whom she married last month. She claimed part of the money was earmarked for a Kennedy Center donation that never arrived.
She first told White House officials the money came from her husband, according to The Times. But the documents his lawyer turned over blacked out the sender’s name, and officials later learned the funds came from “a bank account affiliated with the Congolese government,” people familiar with the matter told the paper.
Mildon has acknowledged through a spokesman that he advises the Congolese president and carries one of the country’s diplomatic passports. His company, Milvest, has landed several major government construction contracts there, and he has said he owns mines in the country.
The money went to TX-AT, a Texas security and defense firm. Grenell has acknowledged consulting for the company in 2024 but said he had no tie to it when the transfer was made and denied any link to the payment. At the time, he was serving as Trump’s special envoy to Venezuela, where Mildon also holds extensive business interests that the two men had discussed.
The Times reported that the purpose of the underlying deal remains unclear. TX-AT did not respond to the paper’s requests for comment.
Grenell has called Habba’s accusations absurd. “I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center and I’ve never received any payment from him at all,” he wrote on X earlier this week. He declined further comment to The Times.
White House Counsel Will Scharf, who is leading the inquiry, was among the senior administration officials who attended the couple’s wedding at New York’s Waldorf Astoria last month.
“This is the ultimate MAGA blood feud,” one insider told Axios earlier this week.
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