July, 21 2023, 10:45am EDT
CFTC Must Reject Dangerous Election Gambling Proposal
Public Citizen submits forceful comment as deadline approaches
Today, Public Citizen submitted a comment to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) forcefully opposing betting startup Kalshi’s proposal to coordinate large-scale gambling on U.S. election outcomes. The CFTC issued a request for comment on the case late last month, with a deadline of July 24, 2023.
In their comment on behalf of Public Citizen, government ethics expert Craig Holman, Ph.D. and Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert outline the ways in which election gambling presents a threat to the integrity of our democracy — which include eroding public trust in our electoral system and further incentivizing wealthy special interests to spend massive amounts of money to tip the scales in a direction that benefits them.
“Sanctioning gambling on U.S. election outcomes would effectively turn our electoral system into a financial game for the rich and powerful, undermining the will of voters,” said Craig Holman, Ph.D., a government ethics expert with Public Citizen. “To safeguard the integrity of our democracy, the CFTC must immediately reject Kalshi’s proposal and reaffirm that election gambling is not permitted by the federal government.”
Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen added, “Trust in our elections and faith in government is already at an all-time low. Layering in gambling on our elections will take our democracy in precisely the wrong direction. The CFTC must do the right thing and reject this request.”
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
'Heavily Armed Secret Police Force': ICE, CBP Amass $144 Million Weapons Stockpile
"In just one year, ICE’s spending commitments on weapons, ammunition, and accessories surged fourfold."
Feb 25, 2026
A report produced by the office of Sen. Adam Schiff reveals that federal immigration enforcement agencies amassed a gigantic weapons stockpile during the first year of President Donald Trump's second term.
In total, the report released by Schiff (D-Calif.) finds that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) committed to spending over $144 million on weapons and ammunition over the last year, a massive increase over these agencies' spending on weapons in years past.
"In just one year, ICE’s spending commitments on weapons, ammunition, and accessories surged fourfold—an increase of over 360 percent—when compared to ICE’s contracts in 2024," states the report. "In 2025, CBP’s contracts for weapons, ammunition, and accessories doubled when compared to CBP’s 2024 contract totals."
The report documents how both agencies have combined to spend tens of millions of dollars purchasing lethal weapons, including "AR-style rifles, pistols, and large quantities of accessories, such as optical sights for firearms and suppressors"; so-called "less-lethal" weapons including "TASERs, pepper sprays, tear gas canisters, and canister launchers"; and assorted kinds of ammunition.
The report adds that "records show that DHS’s procurement of weapons at immense scale is just beginning, as these contract awards contemplate even greater spending moving forward," which it says should serve "as a stark warning to the American public."
Schiff's report concludes with a warning about the US Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) "growing plans to build a heavily-armed domestic police force," adding that federal immigration agents' killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti could only be the first of many tragedies to come.
In an analysis of the Schiff report published Wednesday, the New Republic's Greg Sargent argued that the Trump administration is trying to launch a domestic "war on terrorism" by bringing the kind of violence the US has deployed overseas back to the homeland.
"In a sense, we’re seeing yet more cancerous growth of the post-September 11 national security bureaucracy, but with a more intensified inward focus," wrote Sargent, who described ICE and CBP under Trump as a "heavily armed secret police force" in a Wednesday social media post.
Georgetown University law professor Rosa Brooks told Sargent that the dangers posed by ICE and CBP could outlast Trump's presidency.
"Trump is building up a well-funded, poorly trained paramilitary force that could easily take on a life of its own,” Brooks explained. “Once you have a massive moneymaking machine ginned up, it’s hard to reverse course and turn off the spigot.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Huge Win': Judge Bars Trump DOJ From Searching Devices of Washington Post Journalist
One press freedom group called the raid on Hannah Natanson's home last month a "warning shot to journalists and whistleblowers nationwide."
Feb 25, 2026
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the US Justice Department cannot search the devices it seized from Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post journalist whose home was raided by the FBI earlier this year as part of an investigation into a government contractor.
William Porter, magistrate judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia's Arlington Division, wrote in his 22-page decision that the Trump administration's "failure to identify and analyze" the Privacy Protection Act (PPA) in its application for a search warrant in the case "has seriously undermined the court’s confidence in the government’s disclosures in this proceeding."
The PPA shields journalists from being forced to turn over work materials to law enforcement. During the raid on Natanson's home, FBI agents reportedly seized a phone, two laptops, a recorder, and other devices.
"Many government lawyers had multiple opportunities to identify the PPA as controlling authority and to include an analysis of it in the warrant application," Porter wrote. "None of them did."
Porter added that he hopes "this search was conducted—as the government contends—to gather evidence of a crime in a single case, not to collect information about confidential sources from a reporter who has published articles critical of the administration."
Runa Sandvik, founder of a startup that works to protect journalists' digital security, called the ruling a "huge win for Hannah Natanson and the Washington Post."
The Post noted in its reporting on the decision that federal prosecutors "acknowledged that only a small portion of the information on the devices seized from Natanson would be relevant to the case against" Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a government contractor who was indicted last month on charges of illegally obtaining and sharing classified materials.
Federal prosecutors "asked Porter to allow a government filter team to search through the devices for relevant information," and the team "would then hand over the responsive information to prosecutors," the Post reported.
Porter rejected that proposal in his ruling, citing "documented reporting on government leak investigations and the government’s well-chronicled efforts to stop them."
"Allowing the government’s filter team to search a reporter’s work product—most of which consists of unrelated information from confidential sources—is the equivalent of leaving the government’s fox in charge of the Washington Post’s henhouse,” Porter wrote. “The concern that a filter team may err by neglect, by malice, or by honest difference of opinion is heightened where its institutional interests are so directly at odds with the press freedom values at stake.”
Press freedom organizations have condemned the Trump administration's raid on Natanson's home and seizure of her work devices as an alarming escalation in a broader assault on journalism.
Earlier this month, the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed a complaint against Gordon Kromberg, the federal prosecutor who signed the search warrant application targeting Natanson.
“Kromberg and the government omitted a federal law that should have prohibited the raid of Hannah Natanson’s home when applying for a search warrant," Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for FPF, said in a statement, referring to the Privacy Protection Act. "That choice now threatens to expose Natanson’s sources and cripple her ability to report, while also sending a warning shot to journalists and whistleblowers nationwide."
“Disciplinary bodies cannot look the other way and ignore misconduct that threatens the First Amendment, particularly from an administration with a long history of misleading judges and everyone else," Stern added. "When prosecutors abuse their power to facilitate efforts to silence reporting and intimidate news sources, disciplinary authorities must hold them accountable and impose real consequences.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Watched by Millions, 'People's State of the Union' Counters Unhinged Trump
"We live in a country where we have one reality for everyday people and another for the rich and the well-connected and the well-protected," said Rep. Summer Lee.
Feb 25, 2026
As President Donald Trump prepared to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday to applause from sycophantic Republicans, dozens of Democratic lawmakers, progressive advocates, and people impacted by White House policies gathered on the National Mall to present an alternative assessment of the country's trajectory.
"We live in a country where we have one reality for everyday people and another for the rich and the well-connected and the well-protected," said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), preempting Trump's claim of a "golden age of America" despite rising costs, deepening inequality, and staggering corruption.
While many Democratic lawmakers opted to attend Trump's speech, saying they did not want the president to deliver his remarks to a House of Representatives full of Republicans, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told the crowd gathered blocks from the US Capitol that "these are not normal times, and Democrats have to stop behaving normally."
Watch the full counter-rally, which organizers said millions watched online:
Among those who joined Democratic lawmakers at the People's State of the Union were Epstein survivors and people harmed by the Trump administration's lawless assault on immigrants, assault on the social safety net, and other policies.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said during his remarks at Tuesday's rally that "I’m not in the Capitol building tonight because I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen."
"For an hour or two or three or four, a man who's made $4 billion off of being president is going to lecture you, the American people, about how good you have it," said Casar. "A man who is building himself a golden ballroom is going to tell you that if you're struggling to get by, that's your fault, because he's killing it."
"Everyone but Donald Trump's rich friends knows that it's a disaster," Casar added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular