Two years after the FBI arrested DC Councilmember Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), jurors on Tuesday heard opening statements in the federal government’s bribery case against him.
The trial began Sept. 15 in US District Court, where prosecutors and White’s attorneys showed the same jurors clips of secretly recorded meetings. But each side told the jury that those images proved very different things.
The government says the videos document a straightforward exchange of cash for contracts. White’s defense says they show no such bargain. They acknowledge that White accepted money from a longtime associate, but they say he did not agree to steer District contracts and did no more than ask city officials about their status…