In the afternoon of Sunday, August 18, about ten FBI agents armed with a battering ram to knock down a door, entered an apartment building and arrested Washington, D.C. City Council member Trayon White, Sr., according to the Washington Post. White is facing up to 15 years in federal prison for a scheme which helped at-risk youth. An FBI informant has alleged that he would give White envelopes full of cash, airline tickets, and other items of value, for his use of influence in the City Council to maintain various youth programs, often implemented by outside contractors, at the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. The FBI informant pled guilty to fraud, but his sentence will be reduced for cooperating with the FBI in this case of entrapment against White. On August 19, White appeared in federal court, with many of his constituents in the chamber to show support. Fellow council members and aides to White were surprised by the arrest, and were unaware of any investigations involving White.
Councilman White has been representing D.C. Ward 8 since 2016: This is the southeast area of Washington, where over a quarter of the residents live below the poverty level. (Ward 8 was also accused, during the 1990s, of being a “criminal district” because of its re-electing Marion Barry to the City Council after his release from jail, which eventually provided the base from which he regained the mayoralty.) White has a reputation for his “boots-on-the-ground activism” where people are suffering the most. He is expected to easily win reelection in November.
