Federal investigators believe President Donald Trump's longtime teleprompter operator allegedly used inside knowledge of presidential speeches to profit more than $100,000 on the prediction market Kalshi. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating allegations against Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has operated Trump's teleprompter since 2016.
Perez is reportedly in talks with federal regulators to settle the claims. Kalshi, the prediction market platform, alerted the CFTC to suspicious activity on its "Mentions" market, where users can bet on whether specific words or phrases will be uttered during public speeches. Kalshi's lead lawyer stated the company promptly flagged and referred the trades to the CFTC and is cooperating with regulators.
The White House acknowledged the situation, with spokesperson Davis Ingle stating, "The staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC." A spokesperson for the CFTC declined to comment.
According to sources familiar with the matter, investigators found that Perez placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period. These included the State of the Union address in February, a December primetime address, a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and remarks during a Medal of Honor ceremony in March.
Sources previously confirmed that the White House issued an internal memo in March warning staff against using nonpublic information to place bets on prediction markets. Perez continues to serve as one of Trump's teleprompter operators, a role he has held since Trump's first presidential campaign. Investigators previously scrutinized Perez over edits made to remarks surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Investigators reportedly uncovered instances where Perez would back out of bets mid-speech if Trump deviated from the prepared remarks and omitted a word on which Perez had bet. Trump himself has often acknowledged deviating from his prepared text, stating in January, "You know, when you go up here, you take a big chance, especially me because I go off teleprompter about 80% of the time."
Perez reportedly acknowledged some of the trades during an interview with regulators. The CFTC alerted federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who declined to open a criminal investigation. Regulators are said to be willing to settle with Perez, with discussions involving him returning his profits and refraining from similar trades. Kalshi has a policy against users betting based on job-related information and recently updated its policies to require users to disclose their employment.
This situation arises as the Department of Justice has brought its first insider trading cases on prediction markets involving a soldier and a Google employee, both of whom pleaded not guilty. President Trump has expressed a complex stance on prediction markets, having previously criticized them conceptually but later stating support for their operation in the U.S.