A federal jury deadlocked Monday on a bribery charge against D.C. Councilman Trayon White Sr., prompting U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras to declare a mistrial after more than three days of deliberations. Jurors told the court that further discussion had only “cemented” their differing positions.
White, who represents Ward 8, was accused of accepting $35,000 in cash from D.C. contractor Allieu Kamara during four meetings in 2024. Kamara was cooperating with the FBI at the time, and agents secretly recorded the exchanges. Prosecutors said White agreed to use his position to help Kamara’s companies secure renewals of multimillion-dollar violence-interruption contracts, and that he stood to receive $156,000 total — three percent of the contracts’ value.
Prosecutors played roughly 87 minutes of recorded footage at trial, including one exchange in which White accepted an envelope containing $15,000 while saying, “I don’t want to feel like you got to give me something to get something done, man.”
White’s attorneys did not dispute that he took the $35,000. Instead, they argued that accepting money was not enough to prove bribery because White never actually pressured city officials to renew Kamara’s contracts. Defense attorney Gary Kohlman told jurors in closing arguments: “Trayon White actually did nothing.”
Three D.C. officials who testified said White never pressured them regarding the contracts. That point became central when jurors asked Judge Contreras whether accepting money for an official act constitutes bribery if the defendant never intended to carry it out. The judge told them it did not.
Kamara’s own credibility was also a focus of the defense. He had pleaded guilty to bribery and bank-fraud conspiracy before agreeing to cooperate with the FBI, giving White’s attorneys grounds to argue he had an incentive to assist prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said after the mistrial that the government intends to pursue the case again. “We have video showing piles of cash being given to a D.C. councilmember as part of a $156,000 bribe,” Pirro said. “Rest assured that we will retry this case and every corruption case to verdict.”
White, maintaining his innocence, said after the mistrial, “Victory is mine, saith the Lord.”
White’s lead attorney said the jury had split 9-3 in favor of acquittal, according to the defense’s account of deliberations.
The mistrial does not resolve White’s political status. The D.C. Council voted 12-0 to expel him in February 2025 after the federal charges were filed, but Ward 8 voters returned him to the same seat in a subsequent special election. He has been barred from committee and leadership roles while the case proceeded. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson indicated after the mistrial that he did not expect the Council to take immediate action while prosecutors prepare for a retrial.
A mistrial is not a finding of innocence; it means the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. The underlying federal indictment against White remains in place.
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