By Ethan Faverino |
U.S. Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ-08) has sent a sharply worded letter to the Acting Chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Caroline D. Pham, demanding immediate answers and potential regulatory action regarding the newly announced partnership between prediction-market platform Kalshi and CNN.
In the letter, Congressman Hamadeh warns that the collaboration “poses direct and foreseeable threats to market integrity, democratic stability, and American national security,” arguing that it creates an unprecedented structural conflict of interest by allowing a major news organization to both report on and financially benefit from high-stakes geopolitical events.
“CNN would be uniquely positioned to shape public perception and news cycles around the very events Kalshi lists as tradable markets,” said Congressman Hamadeh. “These events would involve elections, war, foreign policy crises, and domestic instability. No other major media outlet has attempted such a partnership, and for good reason: it creates a built-in structural conflict of interest that allows an influential news organization or foreign adversaries to shape outcomes for financial or competitive advantage.”
The congressman highlighted Kalshi’s existing controversial markets, including contracts that reportedly allowed trading on whether Palestinians in Gaza would suffer mass starvation or when Israel might conduct military actions in Gaza or the West Bank—markets he described as “chilling.”
Specifically, the congressman posed four questions to the CFTC:
- What actions is the Commission taking to review the CNN-Kalshi partnership under Section 5c(c)(5)(C), with respect to informational conflicts of interest and event manipulation?
- Is the CFTC assessing whether the partnership creates vulnerabilities for foreign or domestic actors to influence U.S. politics, economics, or national security for financial profit?
- Has the Commission evaluated whether CNN’s editorial influence, combined with Kalshi’s event contracts, renders these markets “contrary to the public interest?”
- What steps will the CFTC require to ensure robust compliance controls, including editorial firewalls, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and foreign-influence screening?
Hamadeh gave Acting Chairwoman Pham 30 days to provide a detailed written response outlining the Commission’s assessment and planned actions.
“My constituents have raised alarm bells about a media company with a long-documented record of partisan manipulation now positioning itself to influence and profit from geopolitical events in real time,” stated Hamadeh. “This partnership is not merely inappropriate; it is outright dangerous.”
He concluded, “The CFTC’s mission is to safeguard the integrity of U.S. markets, and allowing CNN, a network already viewed by many Americans as a propagandistic actor, to operate inside a live prediction market creates unacceptable national-security and governance vulnerabilities.”
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
