Prosecutors say Lumumba took $50,000 in disguised campaign contributions
Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who served as mayor of Mississippi’s capital city from 2017 until his indictment, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud and money laundering on Monday in federal court in Jackson, according to The Guardian. The 43-year-old attorney had been indicted in November 2024 after an FBI sting operation and had previously described the case as a “political prosecution” designed to harm his 2025 re-election campaign.
“I have never accepted a bribe of any type,” Lumumba said in 2024 after his indictment. “As mayor, I have always acted in the best interests of the city of Jackson.”
Prosecutors said Lumumba took $50,000 in bribes delivered as five checks disguised as campaign contributions, according to the Guardian. The payments came from individuals federal agents had posed as representatives of a development company seeking to build a hotel in Jackson. According to the Laurel, Mississippi, news channel WDAM7, as reported by the Guardian, Lumumba and a co-conspirator were flown to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by private jet in April 2024 for what was presented as a campaign event, where the money was handed over.
After receiving the payments, prosecutors said, Lumumba called the city’s director of development and planning to move a meeting date at which the hotel project was to be discussed.
The plea averted a trial set for July 13. Had the trial proceeded, U.S. Assistant Attorney Dave Fulcher said prosecutors would have presented evidence of the disguised checks and the scheme.
Lumumba and Banks, a former city council member who also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, were released until a sentencing hearing in October. Each faces up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, though federal defendants who plead guilty before trial generally receive lighter sentences.
Jody Owens, the district attorney for Jackson-area Hinds County, pleaded guilty to a single federal conspiracy charge a week earlier and resigned from his post on Wednesday.
Another Jackson city council member caught in the investigation, Angelique Lee, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and resigned her seat in August 2024.
Lumumba, an attorney whose law license could be revoked as a convicted felon, did not speak with reporters as he left the courthouse with his wife, Eboni.
Attorneys for the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) defended Lumumba despite his admission. According to Mississippi Today, attorney Jaribu Hill told supporters in court: “As you can see, the legacy has not been tarnished. What’s been tarnished, if anything, is the ongoing facade of justice.”
NCBL co-chair Mawuli Davis said Lumumba chose to close the case in his own way but that his guilty plea should not affect the “larger national discussion about equal administration of justice,” according to WDAM7. “Black elected officials have too often exercised leadership under a level of scrutiny and political pressure that is neither equally applied nor equally experienced,” Davis said.
Lumumba was first elected in 2017 as the city’s youngest mayor, winning with 93% of the vote, and pledged to make Jackson “the most radical city on the planet.” His tenure was punctuated by tensions over race and crime and by severe infrastructure problems, including a 2022 water crisis in which more than 150,000 Jackson residents — largely Black and lower-income — suffered months of low water pressure, outages, and the closure of schools and other facilities. Lumumba frequently clashed with state and federal officials over solutions to the crisis.