The former mayor of Jackson, Miss.—who was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.)—pleaded guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges, the latest Sanders-backed politician to fall from grace this week. His guilty plea comes days after the former district attorney for Hinds County, which includes much of Jackson, pleaded guilty to similar charges.
Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the former mayor of Mississippi's crime-ridden state capital, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering for giving political favors to real estate developers in exchange for $50,000 in campaign donations.
Former Hinds County district attorney Jody Owens, who was indicted alongside Lumumba in November 2024, pleaded guilty to similar charges last week.
Lumumba, a self-described "revolutionary," was elected mayor in 2017 on the promise of making Jackson "the most radical city on the planet." Sanders praised Lumumba after his victory, saying the mayor would bring "honest progressive values to the table." Sanders endorsed Lumumba for reelection in 2021, calling him "a consistent fighter for the working families of Jackson, Mississippi," and "a strong advocate for justice, progress, and equity."
Owens, a former attorney for the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, was elected in 2019 alongside a wave of progressive prosecutors. Soros's Mississippi Justice and Public Safety PAC donated $500,000 to support Owens, who ran on a platform of providing "alternatives to incarceration."
Jackson, the largest city in America's poorest state, earned the ignominious title of "Murder Capital of America" under Lumumba's watch. The Mississippi capital's murder rate peaked in 2021 at 99.5 homicides per 100,000 residents, the highest rate in the country and roughly 15 times higher than the national murder rate.
Lumumba battled with Jackson's police department during his tenure and called for "civil disobedience against police brutality and the abuse of black bodies."
"We must dismantle oppressive systems and strive for justice," Lumumba, who is black, said in June 2020 in the wake of George Floyd's death. In 2022, he accused Mississippi's overwhelmingly white and Republican state leaders of adopting a "paternalistic" and "racist" view of Jackson, 82 percent of whose residents are black.
Jackson has been riven by a racially charged controversy over the GOP-controlled Legislature creating a separate police district—where Capitol Police have jurisdiction—that covers some of the city's whiter neighborhoods. Lumumba compared the district to apartheid and called its establishment "an attack on black leadership."
Attorneys for Lumumba likewise cast him as a victim of racism following his plea agreement. The U.S. attorney who oversaw the probe of Lumumba and brought the charges, Todd Gee, is white but was appointed by former president Joe Biden.
"Mayor Lumumba accepted accountability for the count before the court today. That decision should not obscure the broader historical reality that black elected officials have too often exercised leadership under a level of prosecutorial scrutiny and political pressure that is neither equally applied nor equally experienced," said Mawuli Davis, an attorney for the National Conference of Black Lawyers, a group representing Lumumba.
Lumumba’s plea deal caps a rough week for the Sanders political machine. Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner (D.), whom Sanders endorsed last August, quit the race Wednesday night following reports that he raped a woman in 2021. Sanders faces criticism for defending Platner following reports last month that he abused an ex-girlfriend.
Sanders rescinded his endorsement of Platner on Tuesday and has backed Troy Jackson, a progressive Maine lawmaker who came in third place in the Maine Democratic gubernatorial primary last month.
Sanders's office did not respond to a request for comment. Soros's political action committee did not respond to a request for comment.