DC Council member slapped with federal bribery charges

WASHINGTON (CN) — A D.C. Council member faces a federal bribery charge after prosecutors say he accepted over $156,000 in payments to extend several city government contracts.

Trayon White Sr., a Democrat, represents Ward 8 in southeastern Washington and is the chair of the Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs, which oversees agencies such as the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

Authorities arrested White Sunday night and he is expected to make his initial court appearance on Monday, when the criminal complaint was unsealed. White’s chief of staff did not respond to a request for comment.

According to an FBI affidavit, White agreed in June to accept approximately $156,000 in kickbacks and cash payments from an individual — referred to only as “confidential human source 1” — to pressure government employees to extend the individual’s government contracts. The contracts were worth over $5 million.

The individual, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bribery charges and is cooperating with the FBI, ran two unidentified companies that provided violence intervention services throughout Washington, according to the affidavit.

Between June 26 and Aug. 9, White met with the informant four times to receive separate cash payments totaling $35,000. The informant recorded the meetings with White.

According to the recording — which included images of White sitting in the informant’s passenger seat — the informant handed White an envelope containing $15,000 in cash. White repeatedly indicated he needed money, saying that he was “hurting.”

“What do you need me to do, man?” White asked as the informant offered the envelope. “I don’t want to feel like you’ve got to give me something to get something. We’re better than that.”

According to the affidavit, White then took the envelope and placed it in his jacket pocket before discussing what the informant wanted White to do in exchange, including a meeting with a government employee, an appointed public official in the Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser regarding the status of the informant’s contracts.

The pair met again on July 17, where the confidential source paid White another $5,000 and produced a ledger revealing that White would receive 3% from grants provided to the source’s companies, or up to $141,000, according to the affidavit.

In a third meeting on July 25, the source paid White another $10,000 and they discussed potential contract opportunities they should pursue. They also talked about the $15,000 kickback White would receive from a $500,000 grant with the youth rehabilitation service, the FBI agent says in the affidavit.

In their final meeting on Aug. 9, the source paid White another $5,000 and White provided seemingly positive updates from his conversations with several government employees regarding the contracts. As the informant handed over White’s payment, he said it was “because I know you’ve been handling your business," the agent wrote in the affidavit.

White began taking payments from the confidential source in May 2020, according to the affidavit.

The informant told FBI investigators that he paid White $20,000 to use his position to resolve a contract dispute, where the informant’s first company had lost a $6 million contract to provide case management services for chronically homeless people after submitting falsified background checks.

White was unable to resolve the dispute, as revealed in a July 17, 2024, recorded conversation with the confidential source, where White said another government employee he had convinced to resolve the contract dispute suddenly stopped answering White.

According to the affidavit, the informant had gifted White with trips to the Dominican Republic and Las Vegas.

White has served as Ward 8’s council member since 2016. About one-quarter of residents in Ward 8 live below the poverty line and face frequent gun violence after decades of racism and divestment east of the Anacostia River.

White ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign in 2022, in which he garnered just under 9% of the vote in the city’s Democratic primary. Mayor Bowser won all but one of the city’s eight wards.

During his time in office, White has also found himself at the heart of several controversies. In 2018, he posted a video espousing a conspiracy theory that Jewish financiers control the weather, for which he has since apologized.

In another incident, White suggested that the National Guard should be called into Washington to help the city tamp down on crime.

Before his arrest Sunday, White had been running for reelection in November and was expected to secure a third term.

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