(LibertySociety.com) – Washington DC council member Trayon White was arrested last weekend on a bribery charge for allegedly using his position to pressure the District’s government to extend contracts to two companies.
According to an August 19 press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, in his role as the chairman of the council’s committee that oversees several agencies that the District’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, White received a 3 percent kickback from violence prevention contracts awarded to a businessman who, in turn, paid White $156,000 in cash.
According to the arrest affidavit, White made agreements with the businessman who was contracted to work for the District government without knowing that the businessman was working as a confidential informant for the FBI after pleading guilty to federal bribery charges.
In a series of recorded conversations, White repeatedly told the businessman that he needed money. The businessman agreed to pay White in exchange for the councilman’s help pushing city officials toward contracts benefiting the man’s businesses.
White boasted of his influence, telling the informant in one recording that he carried “great weight” on the city council, particularly in violence prevention.
As part of the bribery scheme, White accepted four separate payments of $35,000 cash on June 26, July 17 and 25, and finally on August 9. Each of the cash hand-offs was captured on video.
White’s office confirmed the criminal complaint against the councilman and said in a statement that the councilman’s office would remain “fully operational” for the residents of the Eighth Ward.
White was released from custody last Monday following his first appearance in court. His next hearing is scheduled for September 19.
US Attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement that his office took “swift steps to address the allegations” because other contracts in the bribery scheme were about to be awarded.
White first gained national attention in March 2018 after he accused the Jewish Rothschilds family of causing an unexpectedly late snowfall in Washington, claiming in a video posted on Facebook that the Rothschilds were capable of controlling the weather “to create natural disasters.”
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