White House staffer allegedly made more than $100,000 betting on Trump's speeches on Kalshi
A White House teleprompter operator has been placed on unpaid administrative leave after allegedly using inside knowledge of President Donald Trump's prepared remarks to place bets on a prediction market, netting more than $100,000.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the action at a briefing on Thursday, saying Trump was personally aware of the matter and had weighed in.
"I spoke with him about it. He believes it's deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace," Leavitt told reporters. "The individual that was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC but has been put on unpaid administrative leave."
Leavitt added that the staffer would not return to his duties imminently, telling reporters: "There will be a teleprompter operator tonight of course, but it will not be the one unfortunately in that story."
The staffer, identified by ABC News as Gabriel Perez, is a technical assistant to the president who has operated Trump's teleprompter since the 2016 presidential campaign.
According to ABC News, Perez is in talks with federal regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to settle the allegations.
Perez allegedly placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period on Kalshi, a federally regulated prediction market.
Kalshi's "Mentions" market allows users to wager on whether specific words, phrases,...
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