Senators Warren and Merkley question White House on Kalshi trades

Most people who work a teleprompter know what the boss will say before the boss says it. Gabriel Perez allegedly decided that knowledge was worth money.

Now two Democratic senators want the White House to explain what it is doing about that. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley have sent a letter to White House Counsel Will Scharf. Among their questions: would he recommend that President Donald Trump grant clemency to Perez?

What the senators are asking for

The letter is dated November 9, 2026. Warren’s office made it public the following day, November 10.

Perez is the former White House teleprompter operator who settled federal charges over bets placed on Kalshi. The wagers centered on what Trump would say in his speeches.

The clemency question is the sharpest point in the letter. It forces the White House counsel to say, on the record, whether a staffer who profited from insider access might get a presidential pass.

The senators also requested a set of disclosures. They want to know what ethics training White House staff receive on prediction markets. They want details on contacts between the White House and regulators regarding Perez.

They also asked whether any other personnel have engaged in similar behavior. The deadline for a response is November 23, 2026.

According to the research summary of the letter, the senators are troubled by what they see as a thin response from the White House. In their view, the administration has done little beyond warning staff.

How the Perez case unfolded

The case traces back to Kalshi’s so-called mention contracts. These are markets where traders bet on whether a specific word or phrase will appear in a speech.

Perez traded these contracts between December 2025 and early 2026. He reportedly had advance knowledge of what Trump’s speeches would contain.

The results were lopsided. Perez profited on 39 out of 43 contracts, bringing in $107,539.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced its settlement with Perez on August 28, 2026. The total came to $172,539.02, which included a $65,000 civil penalty.

The CFTC also imposed a three-year trading ban.

Kalshi’s surveillance caught it first

Kalshi’s own internal surveillance flagged Perez’s activity and froze his account.

Kalshi operates as a CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market. That status is what gave the CFTC jurisdiction here.

Why this case lands differently

Mention contracts turn speech content into something with a price. Anyone with early access to a draft, from speechwriters to aides to the person loading the teleprompter, suddenly holds tradeable information.

That is the gap Warren and Merkley appear to be probing. Their request for training records is effectively a question about whether the White House updated its rulebook for a new kind of market.

The clemency angle adds a political edge. Trump has broad pardon power, and the senators are asking whether it might be used for a former staffer caught profiting from his position.

Nothing in the letter indicates a pardon is being considered. But asking the question publicly puts pressure on the White House to answer it, or to visibly decline to.

The more immediate thing to watch is November 23. Whether the White House responds in detail, responds vaguely, or misses the deadline will shape how hard Warren and Merkley push from here.