The District’s top prosecutor said Monday her office will retry D.C. Council member Trayon White for bribery charges, barely an hour after a federal judge declared a mistrial.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro was quick to react to the verdict that, for the time being, spared Mr. White from a 15-year prison sentence. He is accused of pocketing thousands of dollars in exchange for steering city contracts.
“We have video showing piles of cash being given to a D.C. councilmember as part of a $156,000 bribe,” Ms. Pirro said in a written statement. “Rest assured that we will retry this case and every corruption case to verdict.”
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Mr. White acknowledged Monday that federal prosecutors could bring the same case against him, but he framed the mistrial as a “victory” while speaking to the media.
“This has been one of the hardest two years of my life, fighting the system,” the Ward 8 Democrat said. “But through it all, I’m grateful. I’m humble, and I feel like I’m redeemed again.”
He also thanked several people, including fellow council member Janeese Lewis George, Ward 4 Democrat. Ms. Lewis George will likely be elected the next mayor of the District in November, having won the Democratic nomination in June.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras declared the mistrial following nearly four days of deliberations. Jurors told the judge on Friday that they were struggling to reach a unanimous verdict, in large part because some jurors had reasonable doubt about Mr. White’s intentions.
Defense attorneys never disputed hidden-camera videos that showed Mr. White, 42, accepting envelopes of cash from an FBI informant, Allieu Kamara, while he was a city lawmaker in 2024.
Kamara, a former nonprofit executive, began working with federal authorities after pleading guilty to defrauding a COVID-19 relief fund.
Prosecutors said Mr. White took $35,000 in those meetings between June and August 2024. Charging documents accused him of agreeing to accept $156,000, including kickbacks, as part of a scheme to direct government money to Kamara’s organization.
But Mr. White’s defense team said the lawmaker never intended to make good on his agreement with Kamara — which must be proven to secure a conviction under the federal bribery statute.
Evidence shared in court detailed how Mr. White met with government officials in charge of certain contracts and even asked about Kamara’s status with the city. But those officials testified that Mr. White never pressured them into renewing the contract with Kamara’s former company.
“What was in his state of mind? How do you determine that?” defense attorney Warren Kohlman said in his closing statements. “You determine that, ladies and gentlemen, by what he did. Not only what he said, but what he actually did.”
The legal saga also allows Mr. White to keep his seat on the D.C. Council.
He was expelled by a unanimous vote in February 2025, but he regained his seat that summer in a special election. D.C. law bars only convicted felons from serving as elected officials.
The court said it will meet again after Oct. 14 to determine next steps in a potential retrial.
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