Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Thursday to “admonish” Ward 8 D.C. Council member Trayon White over a video he shared with his 87,000 followers on Instagram where he discussed jury selection for his upcoming trial on federal bribery charges.
“In the video, the Defendant makes a blatant attempt to tamper with the jury pool for his upcoming trial by appealing to race, making disparaging comments about the jury selection process, and inflammatory comments about a separate jury trial,” wrote U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro in a filing to U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras.
In the video posted Wednesday, White is seen standing in front of a D.C. court building, where he makes some of the first public comments on his trial — which starts Sept. 14 — while weighing in on the jury-selection process, which will begin the week before.