Jury in Trayon White's trial was split 9-3 in favor of acquittal, attorney says

The jury in D.C. Councilmember Trayon White’s federal bribery trial was split 9-3 in favor of acquittal, his defense attorney says. The judge declared a mistrial Monday after jurors failed to agree on the verdict.

White’s attorney, Gary Kohlman, said Tuesday that the judge gave him and the U.S. attorney's office the jury information.

The jury split could play a critical role in the U.S. attorney’s office’s final decision on whether to retry White. Top prosecutor Jeanine Pirro said Monday that her office plans to do so.

"We have video showing piles of cash being given to a D.C. councilmember as part of a $156,000 bribe. Rest assured that we will retry this case and every corruption case to verdict,” Pirro said in a statement.

Kohlman told News4 he will file motions soon to ask the judge to dismiss the case.

White, who represents Ward 8, was charged with bribery after he was seen on video accepting envelopes stuffed with cash. He pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence.

White was arrested in 2024 on a charge that he accepted $35,000 in bribes in exchange for pressuring D.C. employees to extend city contracts for violence intervention services. Authorities said they secretly recorded conversations between White and an FBI informant who gave White the cash on four occasions. Prosecutors said White was offered a total of $156,000.

It wasn’t immediately clear why the majority-white jury made up of nine women and five men decided as they did. A key question seemed to be whether they needed to find that White intended an act of corruption.

In one note to the judge during their deliberations, they asked if a man seen on camera giving White cash needed to receive a contractual benefit for it to be considered bribery. The judge’s answer was no. In jurors’ second note, they asked if it was bribery if White took the money but did not intend to commit a corrupt act. The judge again said no.

White described himself as “redeemed again” after the mistrial was declared.

“The prosecutor didn’t submit sufficient enough evidence to convict me of a crime. There was no crime in the first place,” he said.

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