CFTC Investigating Adam Kinzinger Over Kalshi Bets on His Own Pardon: Report

In brief

• The CFTC is examining trades a Kalshi account linked to Adam Kinzinger made in December 2024 and January 2025, Politico reported.
• One contract turned on whether Kinzinger himself would receive a presidential pardon.
• Kalshi bars users from betting on contracts in which they are direct participants.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating former Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois over prediction market trades tied to the presidential pardon he received from Joe Biden, Politico reported, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.

The trades were made through a Kalshi account linked to Kinzinger in December 2024 and January 2025. He told the publication he had bet on a contract covering whether he would personally receive a pardon, and on a separate contract covering whether Biden would issue preemptive pardons before leaving office.

Biden did so in his final hours in January 2025, preemptively pardoning Kinzinger and other members of the House select committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol.  Donald Trump, who was inaugurated shortly after Biden signed the pardons, had called for the committee's members to be jailed.