Warren, Merkley Press White House Over Insider Betting, Seek Ethics Safeguards

Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley are pressing the White House over its response to a case involving a staff member accused of betting with nonpublic information. The lawmakers are seeking details on any additional violations and on steps to prevent a repeat after a staffer who read a presidential speech in advance traded on a prediction market.

The Block reported on November 11 that the two senators sent a letter to White House Counsel Will Scharf asking what measures are in place to prevent staff from misusing confidential information. They wrote that the White House was not taking meaningful steps to address the ethics concerns.

The case centers on prediction-market trading by Gabriel Perez, a White House teleprompter operator. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Perez more than $172,000 in August. He was accused of betting on Kalshi over whether specific words would appear in speeches by President Donald Trump after reviewing the remarks in advance.

The senators also asked the White House to determine whether other staff members had used nonpublic information to profit from betting or trading. They also asked whether employees had received training on handling such information. In their view, warning memos alone are insufficient and more concrete measures, including mandatory training, are needed to prevent another incident.

Questions over whether officials with access to confidential government information have used it in prediction-market trading have surfaced before. Earlier this year, an active-duty US soldier was found to have placed bets on Polymarket using classified information related to the arrest of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The request came after Democrats secured majorities in both the House and Senate in the midterm elections. Warren, who is set to become the next chair of the Senate Banking Committee, has said she wants to close regulatory gaps in prediction markets. The White House has not issued an official response to the letter.