WASHINGTON (AP) — A bribery trial starts this week for a Washington, D.C., Council member accused of accepting cash from an associate in exchange for using his elected position to help extend city contracts for the associate's businesses.

A federal jury in the nation's capital was scheduled to hear attorneys' opening statements on Tuesday for Trayon White's trial on one count of bribery. White has pleaded not guilty to the charge and denies breaking the law.

White was arrested in 2024 on a charge that he accepted over $150,000 in bribes in exchange for pressuring D.C. employees to extend city contracts for violence intervention services. Authorities say they secretly recorded conversations between White and an FBI informant who gave White $35,000 in cash on four occasions.

Other D.C. Council members voted unanimously to oust White from the council after his arrest. But he won a special election last year to retake the Ward 8 council seat vacated by his expulsion.

Keep Reading

DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, pictured here with well-wishers at his election victory party in August 2000, was murdered two weeks before taking office on the orders of outgoing Sheriff Sidney Dorsey. (Kent D. Johnson/AJC)

Credit: AJC

Featured

Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, held a news conference in Marietta calling for Republican nominee Rick Jackson to divest from data center investments on Sept. 14, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC