Republican members of Congress are already calling on President Donald Trump to pardon a U.S. Army soldier accused of using classified information about Nicolas Maduro’s capture to rake in more than $400,000 on Polymarket bets.
Why? Because lawmakers go unpunished for doing the same thing, they say.
Unless the Department of Justice plans on “going after all the crooks in Congress” who are also insider trading, “this is simply skewed justice,” according to Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
“There is no ‘justice’ when guys like this get the book thrown at him yet members are illegally profiting every day,” she said. “I don’t agree with what he did and he should be required to disgorge all the profits; however, unless the DOJ plans on doing Congress next, this is not justice.”
The indictment against Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke represents one of the highest-profile allegations yet against a government employee over the use of classified information to make money on prediction markets, which have come under growing scrutiny over fears that public servants could be lured into dangerous, perverse incentives to undermine democracy.
But if the Justice Department isn’t prepared “to go after every member of Congress who’s profiting off insider trading, then this feels like selective enforcement, not justice,” Republican Rep. Jimmy Patronis said.
“I don’t support what he did, and he should absolutely have to give back every dollar he made. But holding one person accountable while others get a pass undermines the idea of equal justice under the law,” he added.
Trump should “make this decision at his discretion, not the DOJ.”
The president is the ultimate decider on any pardons or commutations, a White House official told The Independent. The White House did not have any clemency announcements.
Van Dyke, 38, is an 18-year veteran who enlisted in 2008 and was most recently stationed at Fort Bragg. He was promoted in 2023 to the rank of Master Sergeant, the Army’s second-highest enlisted rank.
He is charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He also faces one count of wire fraud and one count of an unlawful monetary transaction.
According to prosecutors, he posted a photo of himself wearing combat fatigues, carrying a rifle and standing alongside three other service members before he cashed out his Polymarket winnings as U.S. forces were preparing to bring the ousted Venezuelan leader to the U.S.
Van Dyke was detained Thursday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he will face preliminary court proceedings before he is transferred to Manhattan to face a trial.
“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement following his arrest.
“Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply,” he added.
Members of Congress are allowed to trade stocks, and nearly all of them own shares in public companies. But critics fear that government employees’ access to sensitive, nonpublic information can be used to move global markets and potentially shape geopolitics — made all the easier with prediction market websites.
Lawmakers and several state legislatures are considering measures to restrict government officials’ use of websites such as Polymarket and Kalshi, and the White House has warned its staff against similar transactions after a recent surge of suspicious trading related to the U.S. war with Iran.
The president’s social media platform Truth Social, however, has announced plans to launch its own prediction market.
Trump himself appeared to brush off concerns about government workers illegally using sensitive information to make bets when questioned about Van Dyke’s arrest Thursday.
“Well, I don’t know about it. Was he betting that they would get him or wouldn't get him?” he said. “That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team. … If he bet against his team, that would be no good.”
He told reporters that “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”
“I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it, conceptually, but it is what it is,” he said. “I’m not happy with any of that stuff. They have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”
The Independent has requested comment from the White House.
Polymarket said the company initially identified the suspicious trades and reported them to law enforcement.
“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement. Van Dyke’s arrest is “proof the system works,” it said.
One day before the indictment against Van Dyke was unsealed, Kalshi announced that three congressional candidates wagered on the outcome of their own elections.
The company fined and suspended Ezekiel Enriquez, who ran in a Republican primary for a House seat in Texas; Matt Klein, a Democratic state senator running for a House seat in Minnesota; and Mark Moran, who is running as an independent in Virginia's Senate race.
Klein and Enriquez both placed bets less than $100 related to their “own candidacy,” the company said in a statement. Moran “traded $100 on myself,” he wrote on social media.
The bets are relatively small but could have seismic impacts. In the case of Van Dyke, he allegedly waged more than $33,000 across 13 bets before he profited approximately $409,881. That payout immediately triggered allegations of suspicious trading across social media.
Trump’s DOJ brings back 17th-century execution method to ‘strength the death penalty’
Tickets to Trump’s ‘VIP’ crypto event now going for 80% off
Why is Trump coming to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Because he needs us
How conspiracy theories about 12 missing or dead scientists caught Trump’s attention
Fears of firings permeate through Pentagon after high-profile ousters
Patel admits two past arrests for alcohol-related crimes as Trump stands by him
