On Tuesday, for the first business day in more than two weeks, D.C. Council member Trayon White was free to go about his work and life without stepping foot in the city’s federal courthouse.
But the Ward 8 lawmaker’s legal, political and financial woes are far from over, even though his first bribery trial ended Monday in a hung jury. D.C.’s top prosecutor has vowed to retry the case against him. His colleagues on the council are quietly at odds over whether to expel him again for ethical violations. And the lawmaker, who represents 87,000 residents across Southeast D.C., must still contend with an array of investigations and lawsuits involving his political spending and personal debts.
What’s more: Many of these matters won’t be resolved until White’s criminal proceedings conclude — meaning White, the rest of the council and the various government bodies investigating him are all stuck in an uncomfortable limbo with no clear end in sight.
“The longer this goes on, the longer there is no accountability for what has taken place in a variety of areas,” said D.C. Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large). “It does put us in a pattern where nothing is settled. I would like to see resolution.”
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White, who claims former D.C. “mayor for life” Marion Barry as a political mentor, has grown a loyal following in his home ward by being highly visible and responsive to the concerns of ordinary people. But his legal troubles exploded into public view two years ago, in August 2024, when he was arrested outside his Navy Yard apartment complex and charged with bribery. Authorities allege that White accepted $35,000 in cash bribes and agreed to accept more than $150,000 in exchange for agreeing to help a local businessman secure D.C. government grants.
White’s defense attorneys did not dispute that he took the money.
But the issue for prosecutors is that while D.C. government officials did testify that White had approached them about his associate’s work with the city, no one testified that White had actually pressured them to extend his contracts. And, as appeals courts have upheld over the years, a bribery conviction requires the government to prove that, in addition to taking the money, White actually intended to exert his influence to get those contracts extended.
“That’s a hard thing to prove without him having gone out there and having done it,” said Georgetown University Law Center professor Erica Hashimoto. “The government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what was in his head.”
White claimed in an Instagram post Tuesday that the jury had voted 9-3 in favor of acquittal; his attorney Gary Kohlman confirmed the same count to The Washington Sun. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney for D.C. did not respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras declared a mistrial, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said her office would seek to retry the case. White’s defense attorneys have also filed a motion for summary judgment of acquittal, arguing that prosecutors did not bring enough evidence for a reasonable jury to convict White and asking Contreras to acquit their client from the bench.
If Contreras does not acquit White, the government can try again with a new jury — likely with the same evidence, unless a helpful new witness happens to emerge, Hashimoto said.
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In the meantime, questions are swirling about White’s future on the council, which could still expel him over ethical violations — and White’s colleagues are offering little clarity in response.
The D.C. Council’s chair, Phil Mendelson, said lawmakers would wait for the outcome of the legal process before deciding whether to proceed with an expulsion of White. “We need finality here,” he said, adding that lawmakers were divided on whether ejecting White was even the right decision. The council unanimously voted to expel White after he was indicted. He was subsequently reelected in the special election to fill the seat he vacated, though he earned less than a third of the vote in a crowded, low-turnout race.
Most Council members declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Others did comment. Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) said in a statement that White’s disregard of ethics continues to “embarrass the institution of the Council” but declined to say directly whether he supports another expulsion vote. Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) said in a diplomatic statement that the council should both respect the legal process and redouble efforts to bolster trust in city government. Robert White Jr. (D-At Large) said in a statement that the council should allow White’s legal process to continue “without prejudging the outcome.”
Henderson, in an interview Tuesday, said she wants the council to act on a bill she introduced in June 2025 that would prohibit any council member who is expelled by their colleagues from serving for five years. Currently there is no such prohibition, which White benefited from when he was reelected to his Ward 8 seat in July 2025 — some seven months after he was expelled by his colleagues.
“We do still have a gaping loophole that this situation has pointed to, and instead of acting on it we are doing what Congress does: We notice a problem and we still don’t do anything about it,” she said.
Patrick Mara, the chair of the District of Columbia Republican Party, said he wants the council to act immediately to boot White from office.
“It shouldn’t matter your party, it shouldn’t matter your ideology within that party … this is wrong and the council really needs to move on this, because until it does there really will be a dark cloud over the D.C. Council,” he said.
While White remains on the council, there is also a question of how much influence he can have on legislation and government oversight. While he previously chaired the council’s committee on youth affairs, which oversees several offices including the city’s juvenile justice agency, Mendelson stripped him of that leadership role after his indictment. In an interview Monday, Mendelson stood by the decision: “My own view is that somebody with ethical issues should not be rewarded with a committee chairmanship,” he said.
Among White’s supporters, there’s a strong desire to move on.
“Hopefully this is a reset … for him, for all of us,” said Derek Floyd, who founded the youth-focused nonprofit Crowns Incorporated and attended the trial proceedings in solidarity with White.
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Even if he gets out from under the criminal case, and even if the council does not expel him, White faces other potential trouble.
First, there’s a pending investigation by the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability over White’s likely violation of the council ethics rules that prohibit elected officials from accepting gifts from contractors who do business with the city, along with a separate city ethics law that requires disclosure of any such gifts and recusal from any related votes or actions thereafter. The government body could levy fines on White if it finds he violated the rules.
White is also facing outstanding fines from his unsuccessful run for D.C. mayor in 2022 — and questions about public campaign funds that remain unaccounted for.
During that campaign, White participated in the city’s Fair Elections Program, which offers matching public funds for contributions that D.C. residents make to a candidate. White received more than $435,000 in public funds for his campaign, but in March 2024 the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance determined that $59,000 remained unaccounted for. Under D.C. law, any funds that remain after a race ends have to be returned to the city. White was fined $18,100 for failing to return the money and other campaign finance violations.
The investigation — which was put on hold after White was indicted in August 2024 — could eventually resume, requiring White to fully account for the public funds he never returned and the fine he hasn’t yet paid.
“When a criminal matter is pending against a respondent before our office, it is our standard practice to grant a continuance until the criminal matter has been fully resolved,” wrote spokesperson Wesley Williams in an email to The Sun.
White also has outstanding debt from his 2024 reelection campaign, which he had to run without the benefit of public funding because of the ongoing questions around his 2022 mayoral bid. He owes more than $30,000 to a number of vendors. Under D.C. law, that debt — which is now owed by his campaign committee — could transfer to him personally.
Those financial penalties and debts could add to an already difficult financial situation for White, who said in one of the FBI recordings played at trial that he was “bankrupt.” An IRS agent testified at trial that prior to his arrest, one of White’s checking accounts was overdrawn by $1,000.
In the midst of the legal and political morass, White’s public demeanor has alternated between cautious and strident. He said at a news conference Monday that he was not gloating after the mistrial. Approached by a reporter Monday night, White responded to Pirro’s pledge to retry him by saying he was focused on returning to his life.
“At this time, I am focusing on my innocence and getting back to the work of being a council member, father and to my family,” he said, sitting quietly with a group of people at Sycamore and Oak in Southeast D.C.
The next day, however, he took a different approach — including a direct response to Pirro.
“Trump didn’t fire her yet? Guess she is not tired of losing,” White wrote on social media. “No quid pro quo. Never was and never will be. My God is bigger than the United States Government.”
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