Trump Speech Betting Case: White House Teleprompter Operator Leaving Government

White House teleprompter operator accused of taking advantage of early access to Trump's speech to make profits and left his job during investigation

A White House teleprompter operator accused of taking advantage of early access to President Donald Trump's speech to make profitable bets on Kalshi has left his job while the federal government investigates his trading practices.

Summary of the incident

The White House said Gabriel Perez no longer works for the federal government and that an investigation into his Kalshi betting behavior continues. Perez was accused of taking advantage of obtaining a draft of his speech in advance to trade contracts related to Trump's speech, making a profit of more than $100,000. After Kalshi platform discovered the transactions, it froze most of the reported profits and referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The White House confirms the resignation of Gabriel Perez

The Associated Press quoted a White House official who declined to be named as saying (because he was not authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly) that Gabriel Perez "no longer works for the federal government." The official declined to say whether Perez resigned or was fired.

Earlier this month, the White House confirmed that Perez had been placed on administrative leave after ABC News reported that Perez was accused of making more than $100,000 by trading contracts related to terms used in Trump's important speeches, including the State of the Union address.

In early July, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt told reporters that the allegations were "very regrettable and frankly a shame," adding that President Trump was aware of the matter.

According to ABC News, Perez has been involved in preparing Trump's speech since the 2016 presidential campaign, allowing him to obtain content in advance before the speech is made public. Sources familiar with the investigation told the media that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had linked multiple transactions to speeches that Perez had access to in advance.

Over a period of about three months, Perez was accused of trading contracts related to more than a dozen presidential events, including a prime-time speech in December, Trump's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, the Medal of Honor ceremony in March, and the State of the Union address.

The White House previously stated that while Peres is on vacation, another operator will be responsible for the president's teleprompter work.

Kalshi hands trade over to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission

The trading activity came to light after Kalshi's internal control system discovered abnormal trading related to its event contract. After ABC News reported, Robert Deno, Kalshi's director of law enforcement and legal affairs, said on Platform X that the exchange's monitoring team quickly flagged the transactions, initiated an internal review, and handed the matter over to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the federal forecasting market.

Kalshi's rules prohibit users from conducting transactions using information obtained through employment relationships or other non-public channels. ABC News reported that the company froze most of Perez's reported profits after identifying the activity and referred the case to federal regulators.

Although federal prosecutors refused to open a criminal investigation, ABC News said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is still reviewing whether Perez used confidential information when placing bets on incident contracts. The same report stated that Perez had admitted making part of the transaction and had been cooperating with regulators 'investigations.

Forecasting markets are repeatedly implicated in insider trading cases

The Perez investigation is one of a series of recent law enforcement actions involving forecasting markets and suspected abuse of privileged information. In June this year, National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched an investigation into former Rep. George Santos after Kalshi detected suspicious transactions related to a contract on whether Santos would attend Trump's February State of the Union speech.

According to National Public Radio, Kalshi froze Santos 'accounts after reviewing the transaction and handed over the activity to regulators. Investigators accused Santos of betting that he would not attend the speech, even though he had previously publicly stated that he planned to attend. Santos later told National Public Radio that he had no knowledge of the investigation.

Earlier this year, Kalshi also suspended the accounts of three federal election candidates after an internal review discovered that they had traded contracts related to their own campaigns. At the time, Deno said that participants who could influence the outcome of the event violated exchange rules regardless of the amount of money they bet.

Regulatory review continues to expand

Regulatory attention is also increasing as regulators review whether existing insider trading laws apply to event contracts. In April, federal prosecutors accused a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier of using advance intelligence about operations against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to bet profits on the Polymarket contract.

Recently, prosecutors accused Google software engineer Michelle Spaniolo of using confidential Google search ranking data to bet millions of dollars in the prediction market before information was made public.

Congress also reviewed this issue. In May, James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, launched an investigation into Kalshi and Polymarket's insider trading precautions, demanding details of their surveillance systems and enforcement procedures.

As regulatory attention rises, both forecast market operators have expanded compliance measures. Kalshi introduced additional screening tools to identify users directly related to market events, while Polymarket updated trading rules, strengthened surveillance, and hired blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to assist in investigating insider trading and market manipulation.