DC councilmember charged with bribery

Washington, D.C., councilmember Trayon White Sr. (D) was arrested Sunday and charged with one federal count of bribery, the Justice Department (DOJ) said Monday.

White, who represents Ward 8 in southeast D.C., is accused of accepting $156,000 in bribes in exchange for using his position on the council to “pressure government employees” into extending the contracts of certain companies. He was expected to appear in court on Monday, The Associated Press reported.

The contracts were valued at $5.2 million, the DOJ said, and White’s six-figure payment amounted to 3 percent of the total contract value. The contracts in question were for two companies to provide violence intervention services.

The DOJ said a confidential informant, who owned the companies, made four separate payments of $35,000 in cash to White — on June 26, July 17, July 25 and Aug. 9, 2024. All of those interactions were captured on video, as was an instance in which White and the informant were reviewing a document that explained how the 3 percent cut of the contracts was calculated, according to the DOJ.

The FBI informant, the AP reported, agreed to plead guilty to fraud and bribery charges.

The Hill has reached out to White for comment.

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D) called the charges “deeply disturbing.”

“Notwithstanding the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty, the allegations, together with the government’s affidavit, are a gut punch to the public trust in the Council,” he said in a statement.

Mendelson also said he would establish a committee to assess the situation and take steps to remove White from the Council’s Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs.

White launched an unsuccessful primary bid to unseat D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) in 2022. He represents a predominantly Black ward, where the poverty rate is nearly twice as high as it is in D.C. overall, the AP reported.

White, who has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories in the past, is running for reelection.