Former Rep. George Santos rejected claims that he used private knowledge of his own White House event plans to profit on Kalshi. The denial came after reports about a possible DOJ inquiry pointed in different directions.
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George Santos has denied claims that he used Kalshi to profit from advance knowledge about his own attendance at a White House event. The former New York congressman said he only learned about a possible Department of Justice inquiry after NPR reported on it.
Santos wrote on X:
“To the (hundreds) of reporters calling me through the night. Stop! My legal team and I were made aware by a report from NPR yesterday that the DOJ might be looking into me. So now my legal team is in contact with the DOJ to see what is going on.”
The claim centers on prediction market trades tied to whether Santos would attend a presidential address. Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated prediction market exchange, reportedly flagged activity and referred concerns to federal authorities. AP and Reuters both reported that Kalshi alerted the DOJ and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after suspicious trading activity linked to Santos.
Santos disputed the core allegation and said he would cooperate if officials asked for information.
He said:
“The bases of the accusation is preposterous and I look forward to supplying any information asked of me to any agency that inquires, till then media please do not inquire.”
The story became less clear later on Wednesday. Covers reported that Newsweek cited a DOJ spokesperson saying the department did not currently have an open investigation into Santos, which cut against earlier reporting from NPR and other outlets.
Santos also turned his anger toward Kalshi. He called the exchange a “danger to (its) users” and accused it of poor privacy, information leaks, and access problems around customer data. He also called for the CFTC to revoke the Kalshi license.
Kalshi sits at the center of several legal and regulatory fights because prediction markets can look like financial contracts to federal regulators and like gambling products to state officials. That overlap has become a major topic across iGaming, sports betting, politics betting, and event contracts.
Santos also attacked NPR reporter Bobby Allyn, calling him a “clown” and accusing him of fabricating a threat, making up investigations, and harassing him.
Santos served less than one year in Congress before the House expelled him. His expulsion followed claims tied to campaign funds and other conduct, and his name has stayed linked to legal and political controversy since then. ABC News reported that sources said the Kalshi activity involved bets on whether Santos would attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union style address, after he had publicly suggested he would attend.