White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, has been placed on administrative leave amid a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigation into whether he used insider information to place bets tied to the president's speeches.
"He believes it's deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace," Ms. Leavitt said of President Trump at a press briefing. "And the individual that was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC but has been put on [un]paid administrative leave.
There will be a teleprompter operator tonight, of course, but it will not be the one unfortunately in that story."
Kalshi, the prediction market platform, flagged Mr. Perez's trades as suspicious, froze the funds in his account and referred the matter to the CFTC.
"We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided evidence we collected, as we do in any referral," Robert DeNault, Kalshi's head of enforcement, said in a statement.
Ms. Leavitt said the administration was unaware of the bets and noted that White House employees are subject to strict ethics rules.
"There are very strict ethical requirements required by all staffers and officials here at the White House," she said. "And if they are violated, people will pay consequences for that, as you're seeing with this case."
#cspan #karolineleavitt #teleprompter #politics