Former D.C. council member Trayon White Sr. was arrested and charged last August with accepting more than $150,000 in bribes. White, 40, has been accused of accepting the bribes in exchange for using his influence in D.C. politics to benefit companies with city contracts.
Earlier this month, the D.C. Council unanimously voted to expel White after he was reelected for a third term just several months after his arrest. According to reports last summer, an FBI agent’s affidavit claimed White agreed to accept roughly $156,000 in kickbacks and cash payments in exchange for pressuring city governance to extend contracts for two companies, worth over $5 million. White’s trial is set for June 2026.
Additionally, White is accused of accepting tens of thousands in cash payments, according to court documents. “Bribery of elected officials is quintessential corruption,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said before the vote in favor of expulsion. “Trust is precious. Trust is critical for an elected government and we must act.”
“Are we to do nothing? Legislatures everywhere, including Congress, have to be able to discipline their members when there are egregious acts,” Mendelson continued. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie noted, “While this is personally difficult for me, it is my duty as a Council member, and frankly, today’s action is fairly straightforward. It’s not a tough question. What’s right is right; what’s wrong is wrong.”
“I am entitled to a due process like everyone else. I’m a citizen of the United States of America. Here in D.C., we are concerned about President Trump becoming president and what that can mean for D.C. I’m a Democrat, but I have nothing against the incoming President Trump,” White said in a statement outside a D.C. courthouse.
“As a citizen, I would expect the Council to give me the same and the people of Ward 8, the same justice that we allow the federal government to give us. And that’s just the vote of the people. Twenty-thousand people voted for me to be the Council member last week … in Ward 8,” White added. “And so we plan to fight the government in court and just go through the process. And I think that, you know, we have to hear to voice the people.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia released a statement on White’s case. “The complaint alleges that, beginning in June 2024, White corruptly agreed to accept $156,000 in cash payments in exchange for using his position as a D.C. Councilmember to pressure government employees at Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) and DYRS to extend several D.C. contracts,” the report read.
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The press release continued, “The contracts at issue were valued at $5.2 million and were for two companies to provide Violence Intervention services in D.C. As alleged, the $156,000 White agreed to accept in exchange for using his official position to pressure renewal of those contracts to particular companies was three percent of the total contract value.”
“According to the complaint, White’s agreement with a confidential human source (the owner of the companies) – including the source’s payments to White of $35,000 in cash on four separate occasions (June 26, July 17, July 25, and August 9, 2024) and the source showing White a document reflecting how White’s three-percent cut was calculated based on those contracts – was captured on video,” the attorney’s office added.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.