Gabriel Perez, who handled the White House teleprompter and allegedly used early access to President Trump's speeches to place profitable bets on Kalshi’s prediction market, is no longer employed by the federal government. His departure comes as regulators continue investigating the unusual trading activity.
Perez is accused of leveraging privileged information about Trump’s prepared remarks before they were publicly delivered. According to sources cited by the Associated Press, Perez traded contracts linked to over a dozen of the president’s speeches over about three months. These included major events such as Trump’s World Economic Forum address in Davos, a Medal of Honor ceremony, and the State of the Union speech. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has taken interest in the case after Kalshi flagged the trades and froze most of the gains.
Investigation and Fallout
It is reported that Perez made more than $100,000 through these trades. The White House placed him on administrative leave after the ABC News exposé and has now confirmed he has left government service. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the allegations "deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace" and noted that President Trump was briefed on the matter. While it's unclear whether Perez resigned or was dismissed, another operator took over his teleprompter duties during the investigation.
Kalshi’s monitoring systems detected the suspicious trading patterns, leading to the referral to the CFTC. This case highlights the regulatory challenges around market trading based on non-public government information and raises concerns about ethical risks in political circles.
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