A Democratic Washington, D.C., councilman battling bribery allegations took two trips to the Dominican Republic that a campaign donor paid for, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Trayon White took the trips around 2019 and 2021 with the same associate from whom he is accused of agreeing to accept $156,000 in exchange for pressuring D.C. government agencies to extend contracts, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a filing requesting the new evidence to be included. Authorities arrested White in August 2024 on a bribery charge, and the D.C. Council determined he violated its code of conduct in February 2025.
Democratic D.C. Councilman Trayon White is seen on video allegedly accepting a bribe on July 25, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Image courtesy of the Department of Justice)
White’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. He won reelection in July despite the D.C. Council previously expelling him over the bribery allegations.
A September 2024 grand jury indictment alleged White took $35,000 of the planned bribe from the unnamed associate, who was secretly an FBI informant, citing video footage and other evidence. The arrangement was for White to help the associate secure $5.2 million in contracts for two companies providing so-called violence intervention services to the district, the DOJ said.
“The evidence explains why, when the CW handed over thousands of dollars in cash to the defendant, the defendant accepted — this was something they had done before,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro wrote Tuesday about the alleged Dominican Republic trips. “They trusted one another.”
“Specifically, evidence of [White’s] prior receipt of campaign contributions from the [associate] and travel with the [associate] will elucidate the formation, evolution, and organization of the charged bribery scheme,” Pirro argued.
White is no stranger to scandal, having apologized publicly in 2018 for claiming that Jewish bankers caused a D.C. snowstorm.
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