UPSETTING information about Councilmember Trayon White Sr.’s past has surfaced after the politician was arrested on federal bribery charges.
White, 40, was arrested Sunday on allegations that he began accepting cash payment bribes starting in June 2024.
The Department of Justice claims White accepted $156,000 in exchange for influencing his decisions as a Washington councilmember.
The complaint alleges that White used his position to pressure employees at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services to extend several local work contracts, as reported by NBC News.
Those contracts were reportedly valued at around $5.2. million and White allegedly took three percent of the contracts’ value.
The payments for the bribe were allegedly paid to White over four separate times on June 26, July 17, July 25, and August 9, each allegedly $35,000 each.
It is still unclear what will happen to White’s governing responsibilities while he is incarcerated and under investigation.
But this is not the first time White has gone out of bounds.
The Democratic councilmember representing Ward 8 has faced multiple controversies since he stepped into office in 2017.
WINTER FEVER
The DC local was publically skewered in 2018 when he shared a video on Facebook where he talked about a conspiracy theory involving Jewish financiers, according to The Washington Post.
“Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” he said.
He shared a video of the late winter snow flurries that year while driving through town and narrating his thoughts for viewers.
“And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We 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.”
Descended from an 18th-century Jewish banker who lived in Germany, the Rothschilds are a well-known business dynasty that has repeatedly been the subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Many people immediately denounced the comment and called for an apology from White.
“This kind of anti-Semitism is unacceptable in any public official,” Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Temple Micah in Northwest Washington told the Washington Post.
“This so diminishes what America is about and adds to the oppressive feeling going on in the country right now.”
“We all have to be better. Public officials have to learn not to say the first ignorant thing that comes into their head,” he added.
A CHANGE OF TUNE
When reporters reached out to White for his response to the criticisms, he expressed surprise and refused to clarify what he meant.
“The video says what it says,” he replied.
After WAPO published the story about White, he changed his mind — and decided to send an apology and an explanation.
“I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended,” he said.
“The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues.”
QUESTIONABLE DECISIONS
A year earlier, the District lawmaker received criticism for bailing District Commissioner Kendall Simmons out of jail.
He was put behind bars for resisting arrest and allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, according to the Washington City Paper.
The video says what it says.
Trayon White Sr.
“I have always supported this young man, but I don’t condone abuse by anyone,” White told local reporters after the story broke.
“I spoke to the girlfriend, and the news story and her story don’t match. I don’t disown anyone, because at the end of the day he is still God’s child. He is entitle[d] to his day in court.”
Residents of the 8th Ward responded with mixed reactions.
“For a Councilmember who serves in the District’s poorest ward with a high rate of domestic violence to bail out a friend accused in Maryland of domestic violence doesn’t bode well for victims’ rights in the District, or the region,” local activist Ronald Williams Jr. told the Washington City Paper.
“It sounds bad. It’s sad. It’s a slap in the face to his supporters and the women of Ward 8.”
But another resident, Sandra Seegars, saw things differently.
“Kendall is my commissioner now. If he is having any issues right now, he needs to get some help. Whether he is guilty or not, that is up to the courts to decide,” she told local reporters.