The bribery case unfolding against D.C. Council member Trayon White is the latest in a long line of scandals featuring politicians accused of lying, stealing and flouting the law in a city they swore to serve.
From the crack-smoking conviction of Mayor Marion Barry in 1990 through a dizzying series of arrests and resignations of council members over the past 12 years, the District has struggled with betrayals of the public trust.
“This is more than just a punch in the gut,” said Philip Pannell, an LGBTQ activist and civic leader east of the Anacostia River where Mr. White is based. “I feel as if the body politic in Ward 8 has been completely eviscerated.”
Mr. White, 40, was charged Monday with agreeing to take $156,000 in bribes in exchange for pressuring D.C. employees to award grant money to his preferred companies.
An FBI arrest affidavit accuses the Ward 8 Democrat of pocketing roughly $35,000 in cash-stuffed envelopes so he could pressure the city’s violence prevention offices to extend lucrative contracts to a co-conspirator.
According to charging documents, the co-conspirator had agreed to help the FBI arrest the councilman.
The informant, who pleaded guilty to his involvement in the bribery scheme, captured images and recorded conversations with Mr. White while money was changing hands.
According to the affidavit, audio from one recording captures Mr. White telling the informant, “Once you and I lock eyes and gets to an understanding, I gets to work. I can start making s--- happen.”
Mr. White was released after his court appearance. If convicted of the federal bribery offense, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
On Monday, the councilman’s staff issued a defiant press release saying they would “keep serving the public” despite their boss’ criminal charge.
Charges against three council members in 2012 and 2013 show how federal corruption cases against D.C. politicians have played out.
In 2012, Harry Thomas Jr., former Ward 5 Democrat, pleaded guilty to embezzling $350,000 in taxpayer money, including funds for youth sports programs, so he could buy luxury cars, dine at high-end restaurants and take lavish vacations.
Mr. Thomas resigned from the council shortly before his conviction and spent more than two years in prison.
A few months later, council Chairman Kwame Brown was charged with bank fraud for inflating his income to qualify for a home loan and purchase a speedboat.
Mr. Brown resigned, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months of house arrest.
That era for the D.C. Council hit a low point when at-large member Michael Brown was charged with taking bribes to steer government contracts.
From July 2012 through March 2013, Mr. Brown met with an undercover FBI agent eight times and accepted $55,000 in payola. One hidden-camera moment captured him with a wide smile as he took a $10,000 bribe stuffed inside a coffee tumbler.
He pleaded guilty by June 2013 and spent more than three years in prison.
Mr. Brown’s defense attorneys argued that he was taking the money to pay for his mother’s medical bills and his children’s education. The prosecution said he was spending it on frivolous personal luxuries.
“The story of broke-down Michael Brown does not hold up,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Atkinson said at the time. “The problem was not a lack of money. The problem was more money.”
In 2014, veteran council member Jim Graham ended his bid for a fifth term amid corruption allegations.
Concerns over ethics violations helped persuade council member Vincent Orange to step down two years later.
Longtime council member Jack Evans quit in 2020 before colleagues could vote to expel him after transit authority investigators ruled that he had violated conflict-of-interest rules.
None of the scandals in recent years matches the fall from grace of Barry, who died in 2014.
Barry was an iconic figure in the early years of D.C. Home Rule who built a reliable constituency that included support from the city’s White and Black voters.
In his third term in 1990, the mayor’s drug problems boiled over when FBI agents caught him smoking crack cocaine in a downtown hotel.
Federal authorities had an ex-girlfriend of the “Mayor for Life” help carry out the sting. As he was being handcuffed, Barry exclaimed, “B---- set me up!”
During Barry’s trial later that year, U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens said the mayor “entered on his own volition. He himself put himself in that situation.”
A jury thought otherwise and convicted Barry on only one misdemeanor drug count.
In an improbable comeback, Barry won the Ward 8 seat on the D.C. Council in 1992 and his fourth term as mayor in 1994.
Barry died while serving as the Ward 8 representative. His constituents comprise a part of the city often associated with high crime and little economic opportunity.
Barry’s close connection with Mr. White, the current Ward 8 representative facing federal bribery charges, came into focus when Mr. White ran in a 2011 special election to fill a vacant school board seat.
The former mayor coached Mr. White through the early stages of his political career.
Barry’s young protege was one of the last people he reached out to before his death in November 2014.
“Uh, Trayon,” the voicemail said, according to the Washington City Paper. “M.B. I’m leaving the hospital. I’m feeling a whole lot better than I went in. So, uh, we’ll get together sometime tomorrow. I’m going home now and relax, watch television. So, all right. Thanks.”
Later that day, Barry collapsed on the front steps of his home and died.
Mr. White lost the special election to take over Barry’s seat in 2015 but won a regular election the next year.
He has held the seat since. Although incumbent Muriel Bowser soundly defeated him in a 2022 mayoral bid, he looked like a shoo-in for a third Ward 8 term after winning the Democratic primary in June.
That may change in light of the federal charges and the looming council investigation into the case.
If the dozens of vocal supporters at the federal courthouse this week are any indication, the voting booth may be a haven for Mr. White.
Others hope the councilman resigns before Election Day to avoid further drama.
“We’re in a very bad situation because he’s on the ballot,” Mr. Pannell said. “I’m a very loyal Democrat, but I, in good conscience, could not vote for him.”
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