White House staffer allegedly made more than $100,000 betting on Trump's speeches on Kalshi
A White House teleprompter operator has been placed on unpaid administrative leave after allegedly using inside knowledge of President Donald Trump's prepared remarks to place bets on a prediction market, netting more than $100,000.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the action at a briefing on Thursday, saying Trump was personally aware of the matter and had weighed in.
"I spoke with him about it. He believes it's deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace," Leavitt told reporters. "The individual that was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC but has been put on unpaid administrative leave."
Leavitt added that the staffer would not return to his duties imminently, telling reporters: "There will be a teleprompter operator tonight of course, but it will not be the one unfortunately in that story."
Bets on Trump's speeches
The staffer, identified by ABC News as Gabriel Perez, is a technical assistant to the president who has operated Trump's teleprompter since the 2016 presidential campaign.
According to ABC News, Perez is in talks with federal regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to settle the allegations.
Perez allegedly placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period on Kalshi, a federally regulated prediction market.
Kalshi's "Mentions" market allows users to wager on whether specific words, phrases, or topics will be spoken during a public address.
Speeches bet on reportedly included February's State of the Union address, a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and remarks at a Medal of Honor ceremony in March, according to ABC News.
CBS News, the BBC's US partner, confirmed the story.
Kalshi told the BBC its analysts detected unusual activity on mention markets in March and used account data to identify the user as a federal employee operating White House teleprompters.
The platform subsequently froze more than $90,000 in profits before any withdrawal could be made.
White House's ethical framework
Leavitt defended the White House's ethical framework, saying guidelines explicitly prohibit such conduct and are communicated to all staff by the White House counsel's office.
"There are very strict ethical guidelines here at the White House that explicitly state not to do this," she told reporters. "This individual unfortunately violated the plan, and therefore he's paying the consequences for it."
She added: "If they are violated, people will pay consequences for that, as you're seeing with this case."
According to ABC News, federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to open a criminal investigation.
The CFTC told the BBC it could not "confirm or deny" any probe. Regulators are reportedly in settlement discussions with Perez that would require him to return his profits and refrain from similar trades.
