News summary produced by Claude AI
Gabriel Perez, who served as a White House teleprompter operator beginning in 2016, faces investigation over accusations that he leveraged advance knowledge of President Donald Trump’s remarks to place wagers on a prediction markets platform. The bets were placed on Kalshi, a regulated exchange where users can trade contracts predicting whether speakers will use specific words or phrases during public addresses, including major addresses such as the State of the Union speech.
Kalshi’s analysts detected the suspicious activity in March while monitoring what the platform calls “mention markets” — contracts linked to whether political figures and other prominent speakers will reference particular terms, countries, economic language, or campaign slogans. The company’s investigation determined the account holder was a federal employee responsible for operating White House teleprompters. Kalshi froze the account and prevented the withdrawal of more than $90,000 in accumulated winnings.
Kalshi reported its findings to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency responsible for regulating the platform. Robert DeNault, the exchange’s head of enforcement, confirmed the company provided regulators with evidence related to the case. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that President Trump was informed of the situation and stated that Perez had been placed on unpaid leave before his employment with the White House ended.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Perez has cooperated fully with CFTC investigators. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to initiate criminal proceedings based on the allegations. The CFTC declined to confirm or deny whether it was conducting an investigation into the matter.