Washington, DC: Prosecutors Plan to Retry Council Member Trayon White and Seek a New Indictment

Federal prosecutors told a judge in Washington, DC, on Thursday, October 22, that they intend to seek a new indictment against D.C. Council member Trayon White and then proceed with a new trial in his bribery case, The Washington Sun reported.

In a hearing in U.S. District Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Ross said the government intends to seek a superseding indictment from a grand jury. A superseding indictment would replace the original indictment against White and could contain different or new charges. Ross said she expected a new trial could begin in May at the absolute earliest.

A first trial that ended without a verdict

White, 42, represents Ward 8 on the council. He faced trial for bribery last month and stands accused of accepting cash as part of a corrupt agreement to influence city contracts. The proceeding ended in a mistrial when the jury could not agree on a verdict. Nine jurors wanted to acquit White and three wanted to convict him, according to White's attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras declared the mistrial last month after jurors were deadlocked following deliberations. On the day the judge declared the mistrial, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro's office released a public statement saying it would retry the case. Ross's statements on Thursday entered that plan into the official court record. The defense has filed motions for acquittal and dismissal, which the judge did not address during the hearing on Thursday.

Defense says the retrial targets White because of his race

The plan met strong opposition from White's defense attorneys, who said the lawmaker was being unfairly targeted in part because of his race. Defense attorney Gary Kohlman said the government's decision appeared calculated "to put [White] in a situation where he will be defenseless," given how expensive it would be for White to retain his current lawyers.

"In over 50 years of practice. I've never made that accusation before, never, not once," Kohlman told reporters afterward, referring to his statements about racial bias. "Trayon White is African American. He represents, by and large, an African American community that has repeatedly elected him. He had nine people out of 12 that found him not guilty in this case, and I cannot think of any other explanation."

Kohlman also said that if the council member was white, prosecutors would "never consider" retrying the case after a jury split 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal. He said continuing with his current legal team may be prohibitively expensive for White, and he indicated on Thursday that he will not represent White in a second trial because of the cost. "This is designed to break the back of Mr. White's efforts to effectively defend himself," Kohlman said.

Asked about Kohlman's statements at an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Pirro called the claim of racial bias "absurd."

"We don't care what color he is," she said. "We care about the people of this District." Pirro said her office's responsibility is to follow the law and pursue justice. "We don't throw up our hands in the air and say, 'Oh, we're going to go home, let it go,'" she said. "No, he took the cash. Let a jury decide."

The case behind the trial

White was arrested in August 2024 and accused of accepting $35,000, and agreeing to accept upwards of $150,000, in illegal bribes. The charges stemmed from meetings White had with a businessman named Allieu Kamara in the summer of 2024. The FBI was recording their conversations because Kamara, who faced separate criminal charges of his own, had agreed to act as a confidential informant.

The videos shown at trial show White accepting envelopes of cash while the two men discussed business. Prosecutors said Kamara repeatedly asked White for help securing lucrative government grants for violence interruption work, and that White agreed. White's attorneys argued that the lawmaker never took serious steps to carry out the alleged scheme and said the cash payments, which they acknowledged White accepted, could have been political donations. D.C. officials testified in court that White had discussed Kamara's businesses with them but had never pressured them to extend the grants.

To convict White of bribery, all 12 jurors would have had to agree that White actually intended to carry out the agreement to influence the contracts. For nine of them, Kohlman said, the government's evidence did not clear that bar.

White declined to comment on the prospect of another indictment and trial, saying he stood by the statements of his attorney. Asked by a television reporter what the money was for, if it was not a bribe, White was silent. He has not been convicted, and the new indictment, if a grand jury returns one, would start the court process again, with a trial no earlier than May.