President Donald Trump is seen though a teleprompter as he speaks at a campaign rally at Williams Arena in Greenville, N.C., Wednesday, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A White House teleprompter operator was placed on unpaid administrative leave after being accused of improperly using his knowledge of President Donald Trump’s speeches to place bets on the prediction market Kalshi, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
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Gabriel Perez, who made roughly $100,000 from the bets, is cooperating with federal investigators from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a source familiar with the matter told NOTUS.
Trump called the incident “deeply unfortunate,” Leavitt said during a briefing. Another teleprompter operator will work in Perez’s place during Trump’s Thursday night address to the country, she said.
“The White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this and … this individual will be here without pay, the administrative leave is unpaid, to be very clear,” Leavitt said. “That was the decision by the president so it speaks for itself.”
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Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have introduced multiple pieces of legislation in 2026 to prohibit federal elected officials and government employees from using insider information to place bets on prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket. In April, the Justice Department accused Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke of using classified information about the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to wager on Polymarket.
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Leavitt told NOTUS that no other White House staff are currently suspected of misconduct related to gambling on prediction markets.
Kalshi’s surveillance team flagged Perez’s trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after an exchange investigation, Robert DeNault, the head of enforcement for Kalshi, said in a statement.
“We have charged this individual and have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided evidence we collected, as we do in any referral,” DeNault said.
A spokesperson for the commission said it “can’t confirm or deny an investigation” into the matter.
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ABC News first reported on Perez’s involvement.
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