Tag: trayon white

Prosecutors ask for July trial for embattled DC Council member Trayon White – WTOP News

Prosecutors in D.C. are asking a judge to set a July trial date in the case of Trayon White, the Ward 8 Council member facing corruption charges following his August arrest.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. are asking a federal judge to set a July trial date in the case of Trayon White Sr., the Ward 8 Council member facing corruption charges following his arrest in August.

In September, White rejected a plea offer from prosecutors. Now, they’re asking for jury selection to begin July 7, 2025.

In addition, prosecutors are asking for a special jury to be seated “because many members of the venire may have already gleaned a significant amount of information about this case or have formed strong opinions, or both. Additionally, many venire members may have preexisting travel plans during July,” according to the USAO filing posted Wednesday.

Prosecutors also want to use a special questionnaire ahead of time for the jury because “we believe that using a jury questionnaire is necessary in this case to ensure that an unbiased jury is selected, since this case involves a public figure and there has been significant media coverage.”

The government expects the case against White to be presented within two weeks, according to the documents.

The USAO also requested that a certain amount of time from the case not be excluded as “this case is ‘unusual (and) complex’” and the “case involves voluminous discovery.” White’s defense could file a motion for more time or a speedier trial, but U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves’ office says the time will be necessary to “prepare for trial.”

White’s lawyer, Fred Cooke, has not responded to the government’s motions, nor did he respond to a request for comment from WTOP.

In court, White pleaded not guilty to charges he accepted bribes from a business owner looking to have his contracts with city agencies extended. White is accused of receiving around $35,000 in cash from a confidential informant over the summer, with images of White allegedly receiving the bribes submitted by the government as evidence already.

Prosecutors said the contractor was also going to give White 3% of the value of any future contracts signed between his company and D.C.

White has not spoken publicly about the legal peril he’s facing.

Politically, White is up for reelection next month in Ward 8 and is still expected to win another term on the council.

However, last month, the rest of the D.C. Council began an ad hoc committee and hired a law firm to investigate the allegations separately. It’s not clear if White is willing to cooperate in that probe, which has until early December to wrap up.

White has the potential of being expelled from the council by his colleagues, depending on the results of that investigation.

The next court hearing for White is scheduled for Nov. 13, and that could be when a trial date is formally set.

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© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

John Domen

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October 9, 2024
DC police union calls for city’s violence interruption programs to be ‘shut down’ and examined – WTOP News

D.C.’s police union is calling on all violence interruption programs to have their funding immediately halted until the programs can be examined.

D.C.’s police union is calling on all violence interruption programs that the city funds to have their funding immediately halted until the programs can be thoroughly examined, they wrote in a statement released Monday.

The union said the move is a necessary step after Ward 8 Council member Trayon White’s arrest for allegedly accepting bribes to help a business owner renew violence interruption contracts.

“We’re asking that these programs get shut down until someone can investigate and get to the bottom of whether or not they’re operating appropriately,” union chairman Gregg Pemberton told WTOP.

Violence interruption programs include community-based strategies for tackling crime, and the city, like many others across the nation, helps fund many of the programs. In the statement, the union claims these programs are “shady businesses touting unproven approaches to improving public safety.”

In White’s case, the council member could be seen on video agreeing to accept $156,000 in payments from the business owner for offering his help in getting a contract renewed. The union called him “an unabashed antagonist of police,” and noted that his arrest “exposed the deeply flawed rationale behind” legislation passed by the D.C. Council.

“This arrest was just two weeks ago, and, obviously, while we’re processing the impact of these effects, what we’re realizing is that these violence interruption programs, potentially, have a lot of questions that need to be answered, and we think what’s appropriate is that the council shut down these programs until we get those answers,” Pemberton said.

Pemberton called for background checks for all employees of the programs, even though some of the programs hire individuals who served time for committing crimes in the past.

In addition to cutting the funding until audits are complete, the union also called for the city to terminate the contracts of programs, which are found to have not followed the rules of their contracts.

WTOP has reached out to the offices of Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Attorney General for comment.

“I think we should start asking more questions about who these (people convicted of crimes) are, and whether or not they’re actually good for these communities,” Pemberton said.

The union chair also believes the focus should be on filling officer vacancies in the city.

“I think we’re at a place where not only is it dangerous to have these people out here, but they’re now sucking up taxpayer funds to, allegedly, go out and do this job that police should be doing,” Pemberton said.

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© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Mike Murillo

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September 16, 2024
DC Council member Trayon White pleads not guilty to bribery charge – WTOP News

D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr., pleaded not guilty Thursday to a bribery charge during an arraignment in U.S. District Court.

D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr., pleaded not guilty Thursday to a bribery charge during an arraignment in U.S. District Court.

White was indicted last week by a federal grand jury, accused of agreeing to accept $156,000 in cash payments from a business owner in exchange for help in renewing their companies’ violence-interruption contracts with the D.C. government.

Prosecutors say he was caught on video taking money from the business owner and agreeing to accept more payments.

White, who has represented Ward 8 on the D.C. Council since 2017, was the chairman of the Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs that oversaw some of the District’s violence-interruption efforts.

The two contracts between the unnamed business owner and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services were valued at $5.2 million.

Overall, the business owner paid White a total of $35,000 in four meetings between June and August.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said he plans to remove White as chairman of the council’s Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs. White would be disqualified from holding public office if he’s convicted.

White has yet to announce if he plans to withdraw his name from the Ward 8 ballot, though there has been no public petition for him to step down.

Currently on the November ballot for the Council seat is White and Republican primary winner Nate Derenge, alongside write-in candidates Markus Batchelor, Michael Brown, Khadija Long and Olivia Henderson. WTOP news partner 7News reported that White attended the first Ward 8 political forum Wednesday evening.

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© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Ciara Wells

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September 12, 2024
DC Council member Trayon White was arrested on bribery charge – WTOP News

D.C. Council Member Trayon White’s arrest Sunday was in connection with a bribery charge, federal authorities say. Court documents filed in U.S. District Court accuse the Ward 8 council member of accepting $156,000 in kickbacks related to violence interruption contracts.

D.C. Council member Trayon White, Sr. has been charged with bribery, after federal authorities say he was caught on video receiving thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a business owner seeking help renewing his companies’ violence-interruption contracts with the D.C. government.

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C. said White agreed to accept a total of $156,000 in cash payments from the business owner in exchange for pressuring D.C. government employees at two different agencies to extend those contracts.

Details of the charges against White, 40, were made public on Monday, the day after his arrest in D.C.

The council member appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday. He was released from custody and forced to surrender his passport. His next court date is Sept. 19.

Trayon White just left the federal courthouse flanked by supporters. Said nothing. @WTOP pic.twitter.com/AHgbhQ7Ozu

— Nick Iannelli (@NickWTOP) August 19, 2024

As a council member, White, who has represented Ward 8 on the D.C. Council since being elected in 2016, was the chairman of a committee that oversaw some of the District’s violence-interruption efforts.

In a statement, White’s office said they “recognize the seriousness of this matter,” but want to “assure Ward 8 residents” that they will continue to work and serve the public and its constituents as the investigation evolves.

D.C.’s violence interruption efforts involve organizations staffed by community members acting as “credible messengers” who seek to de-escalate neighborhood conflicts.

All told, the two contracts with the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services were valued at $5.2 million. The payments to White represented about 3% of the total contract value, according to prosecutors.

Secret video recordings

Authorities say this photo, taken from a secret video recording, shows D.C. Council member Trayon White putting an envelope containing $10,000 into his jacket pocket. (Courtesy U.S. Attorney’s Office/court documents)

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in D.C., says the scheme involving the violence-interruption contracts started in June 2024 when White agreed to meet with the business owner.

In a meeting in the company owner’s car outside White’s apartment building in Southeast D.C., the company owner wanted to know if the contracts would be extended and offered to pay $15,000 for the information, according to the documents.

White replied, “What you need me to do, man? I don’t wanna feel like you gotta gimme something to get something. We better than that,” according to court documents. However, White put the envelope containing the money into his jacket pocket.

From there, the two continued to meet over the summer, as White updated the business owner on his efforts — and continued to accept envelopes full of cash, according to the documents. Overall, the business owner paid White a total of $35,000 in four meetings between June and August. The meetings were captured on video, the documents say.

The business owner also told authorities he had given White gifts earlier, including trips to the Dominican Republic and Las Vegas as well as a $20,000 bribe for help in 2020 with resolving a contract dispute.

The business owner, who is described in court documents as a confidential informant, agreed to cooperate with the FBI as part of a plea agreement on fraud and bribery charges.

DC Council chairman says he will remove White from committee

Chairman of the D.C. Council Phil Mendelson called the charges “deeply disturbing” and that he planned to remove White as chairman of the council’s Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs until the charges are resolved once the council returns to work on Sept. 17.

Mendelson said he would also be forming an ad hoc committee, under the council’s rules, to “assess the situation and review the evidence against the council member,” saying the judicial process “can be slower than the public’s right to accountable government.”

While the council member is innocent until proven guilty, Mendelson said the allegations “are a gut punch to the public trust in the Council.”

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DC Mayor Bowser reacts to news about Councilman Trayon White arrest and federal bribery charge

Mayor Muriel Bowser was asked to comment on White’s arrest during back-to-school festivities and said she hadn’t yet been able to look at court documents that lay out the accusations against him.

“I think any time you have an elected official that does something wrong or is accused of doing something wrong, people are going to have a lot of heartburn and serious questions and disappointment and anger and all of those things,” Bowser said. “When I know more, we will definitely say if there’s any impact on government operations.”

White is popular in Ward 8, winning reelection with lopsided margins. In 2020, he was reelected with more than 78% of the vote.

Up for reelection this fall, White won a Democratic primary in June with 51% of the vote.

He courted controversy in 2018 when he posted a video on Facebook embracing an antisemitic conspiracy theory that a wealthy Jewish family controlled the weather.

“It just started snowing out of nowhere this morning,” White said in a March 2018 video amid a light snowfall in D.C. “Y’all better pay attention to this climate control,” White said in the video. “It’s climate manipulation and D.C. keep talking about, ‘We are a resilient city,’ and that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”

He later apologized for those remarks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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August 19, 2024