Date: March 28, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
WASHINGTON — Dana McDaniel of Washington D.C., pleaded guilty today to bribery for accepting at least $10,000 in exchange for agreeing to use her position as Deputy Director at the District’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) to benefit another.
The plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Washington DC Field Office, FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division, and District of Columbia Inspector General Daniel W. Lucas.
U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras set a sentencing date for August 6, 2025.
According to court documents, from January 2020 to April 2023, McDaniel served as the Deputy Director of ONSE. In that role, McDaniel managed agency programming and community-based services focused on providing resources and interventions for at-risk individuals in at-risk communities impacted by violence in the District, including the Violence Intervention (VI) Initiative, a collaborative community engagement strategy designed to support D.C. residents in reducing gun-related violence in their communities.
Court documents show that, prior to September 2022 and continuing through at least August 2024, McDaniel accepted at least $10,000 in cash from a Maryland resident to direct contracts and grants to two different District of Columbia-based businesses associated with the Maryland resident. Those companies included a company that represented itself as a community-based initiative to serve high-risk youths and adults and operated throughout the District, and a company that provided VI services as part of ONSE’s VI initiative in Ward 5.
McDaniel faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This case is being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office, with substantial assistance from IRS-CI and the District of Columbia Office of the Inspector General.
It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rebecca G. Ross, John Crabb, and Joshua Rothstein.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.