WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator has been placed on administrative leave and is under federal investigation for allegedly using inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to win more than $100,000 betting on the prediction market Kalshi, according to multiple news outlets citing sources familiar with the matter.
Gabriel Perez, who has operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is in settlement talks with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over allegations that he traded on Kalshi’s “Mentions” markets — where users bet on whether specific words or phrases will be uttered during a public speech — using advance knowledge of what Trump planned to say. Investigators found that over a three-month period, Perez placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches, including the February State of the Union address, a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and March remarks at a Medal of Honor ceremony.
Kalshi’s surveillance team flagged the activity after noticing betting patterns on mention markets involving Trump that did not follow typical trading behavior; examining the account, the company determined it belonged to a federal employee working as a teleprompter operator. “Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC after an exchange investigation. We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided evidence we collected, as we do in any referral,” said Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement. Kalshi froze roughly $90,000 of Perez’s profits and banned him from betting on the platform.
According to sources, investigators also found instances in which Perez backed out of certain bets mid-speech when Trump deviated from prepared remarks and skipped over words he had wagered would be mentioned — a notable detail given the president’s well-documented tendency to go off-script. Perez reportedly acknowledged some of the trades during an interview with regulators. The CFTC alerted federal prosecutors in Manhattan during the probe, but they declined to pursue criminal charges. Regulators have since discussed settlement terms that would require Perez to forfeit his profits and refrain from similar trades going forward.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed at a news conference that the staffer under investigation — whom she did not name — has been placed on paid administrative leave and did not operate Trump’s teleprompter for a Thursday night address to the nation. “The president is too [aware],” Leavitt said. “He believes it’s deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace. The individual that was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC, but has been put on paid administrative leave.” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle separately said the administration holds staff to “strict ethics guidelines” and that “the staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC.”
Perez’s LinkedIn profile identifies him as an employee of VIP Prompting, a company that has reportedly operated White House teleprompters since the 1960s; a person who answered the phone at the company on Thursday declined to comment. According to a salary report submitted to Congress, Perez earned $175,000 in 2026, making him one of the highest-paid members of White House staff. He continues to be regarded as one of the aides Trump trusts most closely with his remarks, often taking last-minute edits directly from the president, and he previously faced scrutiny from congressional and federal investigators over edits made to Trump’s remarks ahead of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
The case marks the first known instance of a federal investigation into suspected insider trading on a prediction market by a White House employee. It follows two earlier Justice Department cases involving alleged insider trading on prediction markets — one against a U.S. special forces soldier accused of betting on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and another against a Google employee accused of betting on user search trends using internal company data. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Kalshi has taken steps throughout 2026 to combat insider trading on its platform, including a policy change last month requiring users to disclose their employer.
