White House teleprompter operator made more than $100K betting on Trump’s speeches: Sources

As President Donald Trump approached the podium to deliver his speech State of the Union address In February, one of the few people who knew what he was about to say was allegedly positioning himself to capitalize on the president’s words.

Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars betting on that speech and more than a dozen others online. Kalshi market forecastFederal investigators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Gabriel Perez, a technical aide to the president who has been running Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations that he used inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to win more than $100,000, the sources said.

According to sources, Calci has alerted its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to suspicious activity in its “signals” market, where users can bet on whether specific words, phrases or topics are uttered during a public speech.

“Our oversight team immediately reported these trades and referred them to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators,” Bobby Denault, Calci’s lead attorney, said in a statement provided to ABC News.

“The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staff and officials to follow,” White House spokesman Davis Engel said when contacted by ABC News. “The employee involved is fully cooperating with the CFTC.”

A CFTC spokesperson declined to comment.

In addition to State of the Union, sources said CFTC investigators discovered that Perez placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period, including a prime-time speech in December, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Trump’s remarks in March during the Medal of Honor ceremony.

Later in March, the White House issued an internal memo warning staff against using non-public information to bet on prediction markets, sources previously confirmed to ABC News.

Perez continues to serve as one of Trump’s teleprompter operators — a role he has served since Trump’s first presidential campaign.

Of all of Trump’s closest aides, sources say Perez typically has the last eye on nearly all of the president’s prepared remarks — and is often known to take last-minute edits from Trump himself. It has previously come under scrutiny by congressional and federal investigators over edits made before Trump’s remarks surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is known to often deviate from his prepared statements, as he himself often admits.

“You know, when you get up here, you take a big chance, especially me because I’m on a teleprompter about 80% of the time,” Trump said during his January remarks to the Detroit Economic Club, another speech that federal investigators believe was among those that Perez gambled on.

In certain cases, investigators found times when Perez backed out on certain bets mid-speech when Trump skipped a portion of the speech that included a word he had previously bet would be mentioned, the sources said.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, Perez interviewed regulators in recent months and admitted to some of the deals. At some point during the investigation, the sources said, the CFTC alerted federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who declined to open a criminal investigation.

Regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have expressed a willingness to settle with Perez, and have discussed with him terms that would require Perez to return his profits and refrain from making similar trades, according to sources familiar with the ongoing discussions.

Kalshi has a policy against users placing bets based on information obtained as part of their jobs.

Last month, the company updated its policies to require users to disclose where they work.

“If you have information by virtue of your job or your business, and it’s something you have a legal duty to do, and you have an obligation not to take that, then misappropriate it for yourself,” Denault told ABC News in May.

The Department of Justice in recent months brought the first two cases of insider trading in prediction markets, involving a Special Forces soldier who allegedly bet on the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and, separately, A Google employee Which allegedly bets on user searches using internal company data. They both pleaded not guilty.

President Trump has sometimes criticized prediction markets, but said in April that he does Supports them Because the United States could be “left out in the cold” if the country does not allow companies like Calci and Polemarket to operate.

“Well, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat like a casino, and you look at what’s happening around the world in Europe and everywhere they’re doing this betting stuff. I wasn’t very much in favor of it. I don’t like it in theory, but it is the way it is,” Trump told reporters.

Last October, Trump’s social media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, Announce It was looking to launch its own prediction market offering.