WASHINGTON (AP) — A District of Columbia councilman known for spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories has been arrested on charges that he accepted more than $150,000 in bribes in exchange for using his elected position to help companies win city contracts, according to court documents released Monday.
Trayon White Sr., a Democrat who ran an unsuccessful 2022 mayoral campaign, was arrested Sunday by the FBI on federal bribery charges and is expected to make his initial court appearance Monday.
White’s chief of staff and spokesman did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
An FBI agent’s sworn statement says White agreed in June to accept about $156,000 in bribes and cash payments in exchange for pressuring government officials to renew contracts with two companies for force intervention services. The contracts were worth more than $5 million.
White, 40, also accepted a $20,000 bribe to resolve a contract dispute for one of the companies by pressuring senior district officials, the affidavit said.
An FBI informant who agreed to plead guilty to fraud and bribery indicated he gave White gifts, including trips to the Dominican Republic and Las Vegas, and paid him bribes, the FBI said.
White, who has served on the D.C. Council since 2017, represents a predominantly black district with a poverty rate nearly twice that of the district as a whole. He is running for re-election in November against a Republican challenger.
White was one of two D.C. council members who defeated Mayor Muriel Bower in the Democratic primary two years ago. White, a former grassroots community activist, was a protégé of former Mayor Marion Barry, who also represented the same district as White on the council.
In March 2018, White posted a video to his Facebook page claiming that the unexpected snowfall was the result of “the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters.” The Rothschilds, a Jewish family with a prominent role in banking, are a frequent subject of conspiracy theories.
White said at the time that he was unaware that the weather-related conspiracy theory was anti-Semitic. A video later surfaced of White advancing a similar conspiracy theory at a meeting of the city’s top executives, asking a question based on the stereotypical premise that the Rothschilds controlled the World Bank and the federal government.
___
Associated Press editor Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.
