Trump's teleprompter operator secretly bet on his boss's speeches, made $100k, insiders say
WASHINGTON, DC: The teleprompter operator for President Donald Trump has come under scrutiny after reports said that he used access to the president’s speeches to place bets and made more than $100,000 in profits.
The case is rooted in President Trump’s State of the Union address in February, when Trump’s teleprompter operator, one of a few people who already knew about the president’s speech, allegedly used the access to information to place a bet and profit from it.
Gabriel Perez, the operator, used several other speeches along with the February one to place bets on the prediction market Kalshi to make tens of thousands of dollars, federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
According to sources cited by ABC News, the technical assistant who has been working with Trump since 2016 is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations that he cashed in on inside information.
The trading app itself alerted regulator CFTC
The report further claimed that the case was traced after the trading platform Kalshi alerted its regulator, the CFTC, to the suspicious activity on its "Mentions" market.
Users use the mention market to bet on whether specific words, phrases, or topics are uttered during a public speech.
"Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators," Kalshi's lead lawyer, Bobby DeNault, said in a statement provided to the portal.
"The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow," said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle when contacted by the news portal. "The staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC."
Investigator found bets tied to high-profile Trump speeches
The CFTC investigator discovered that the operator used several other Trump speeches to make money apart from the State of the Union address.
The accused carried out the betting for over three months and used Trump’s speeches, including a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Trump's remarks in March during a Medal of Honor ceremony.
Notably, the White House had issued an internal memo in March urging the insiders to refrain from using the inside information to place bets on prediction markets.
Among Trump's closest aides, Gabriel Perez is reportedly one of the final people to review the president's prepared remarks before delivery and is known to incorporate last-minute changes directly from Trump.
Perez had previously faced scrutiny from congressional and federal investigators over edits made to Trump's speeches ahead of his January 6, 2021, Capitol riot remarks.
