Sen. Warren, Merkley raise ethics concerns over Trump aide’s prediction market bets

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley are demanding answers from the White House after its teleprompter operator was accused of using advance information to place bets on President Donald Trump's speeches.

The lawmakers say that the White House has failed to take "meaningful action to address ethics concerns," in a letter to White House Counsel Will Scharf.

"We are writing to request information about how the White House is responding to allegations from earlier this year that a key presidential aide enriched himself by abusing access to nonpublic information, and how this alleged incident is shaped by the White House’s lax ethics and anticorruption policies and practices," they said.

In August, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Gabriel Perez to pay more than $172,000 after he allegedly read Trump's prepared remarks shortly before delivery and placed his bets on Kalshi mention markets, which try to predict specific words that public figures will use. Perez's situation is one of several in which people have used inside information to place bets on prediction markets, including an active-duty U.S. Army soldier who used confidential information to place bets on Polymarket ahead of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture earlier this year.

Warren is set to take on a larger role after Democrats took control of the Senate and House in last week's midterm elections. She will lead the Senate Banking Committee, where she has said she would seek to "end the current Wild West-style lack of oversight in this area, with corrupt insiders profiting." Another Democrat, Rep. Ro Khanna, who is weighing a 2028 presidential bid, called for a ban on sports prediction markets on Tuesday.

In the letter, Warren and Merkley said that the White House needs to do more than send a warning memo and take heed of what other administrations have done, including mandatory training.

"More action is required—from the President, from you, and from other White House officials—to provide the public with confidence in the integrity of the federal government under President Trump," the senators said.

Specifically, Warren and Merkley said they want information on whether other employees had "misappropriated insider knowledge to place any bets, trades, purchase contracts, or taken any similar action for personal gain," and if training is available for nonpublic information.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.