Hair found in Nancy Guthrie’s home not linked to suspect in abduction: Sheriff
Savannah Guthrie and mother Nancy Guthrie, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Testing on hair found at the home of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother in the Tucson, Arizona, area is complete and does not point to a suspect in the 84-year-old’s abduction, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told ABC News on Thursday.
“The hair was done … and there was nothing,” Nanos said in an interview.
That leaves a mixed sample of DNA retrieved from Nancy Guthrie’s home as the only known piece of biological evidence, and one that has so far not been affirmatively linked to a suspect.
The sample is a mix of as many as four people, the sheriff revealed. It’s not clear the technology even exists yet to untangle it, though the sheriff said multiple labs across the country are trying, including the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, and labs in Kansas, Florida, California and Arizona.
“My understanding is there are at least five, maybe six, labs across the country that are working on all of this,” Nanos said. “We have some of the brightest minds in the nation, if not the world, working on this.”
Investigators believe Guthrie was taken from her home in the early hours of Feb. 1 by a masked man captured on her doorbell camera. But six months later, Nanos is unable to say whether that masked man was working alone.
“I don’t think anybody’s here ready to say it’s one guy, it’s 10 guys,” Nanos said. “Did he have help? Could have.”
“My understanding is there are at least five, maybe six, labs across the country that are working on all of this,” Nanos said. “We have some of the brightest minds in the nation, if not the world, working on this.”
Investigators believe Guthrie was taken from her home in the early hours of Feb. 1 by a masked man captured on her doorbell camera. But six months later, Nanos is unable to say whether that masked man was working alone.
“I don’t think anybody’s here ready to say it’s one guy, it’s 10 guys,” Nanos said. “Did he have help? Could have.”
A teleprompter is in front of U.S. President Donald Trump as he speaks during a campaign rally at the Grand Sierra Resort on October 11, 2024 in Reno, Nevada. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — When President Donald Trump approached the podium to deliver his State of the Union address in February, one of the few people who knew what he was about to say was allegedly setting himself up to profit from the president’s words.
Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on that speech and more than a dozen others on the prediction market Kalshi, federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has been operating Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations he used his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to win more than $100,000, the sources said.
According to the sources, Kalshi alerted its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to the suspicious activity on its “Mentions” market, where users can bet on whether specific words, phrases or topics are uttered during a public speech.
“Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators,” Kalshi’s lead lawyer, Bobby DeNault, said in a statement provided to ABC News.
“The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow,” said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle when contacted by ABC News. “The staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC.”
A spokesperson for the CFTC declined to comment.
In addition to the State of the Union, sources said CFTC investigators discovered that Perez placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period, including a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Trump’s remarks in March during a Medal of Honor ceremony.
Later in March, the White House issued an internal memo warning staff against using nonpublic information to place bets on prediction markets, sources previously confirmed to ABC News.
Perez continues to serve as one of Trump’s teleprompter operators — a role he has served since Trump’s first presidential campaign.
Of all Trump’s closest aides, sources say Perez typically has the final eyes on nearly all of the president’s prepared remarks — and is often known to take last-minute edits from Trump himself. He previously came under scrutiny by congressional and federal investigators over the edits that were made prior to the delivery of Trump’s remarks surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump is known to frequently deviate from his prepared remarks, as he himself often acknowledges.
“You know, when you go up here, you take a big chance, especially me because I go off teleprompter about 80% of the time,” Trump said during remarks in January to the Detroit Economic Club, another speech federal investigators believe was among those Perez betted on.
In certain instances, investigators uncovered times when Perez would back out of certain bets mid-speech when Trump skipped over a portion of the speech that included a word he had previously bet would be mentioned, the sources said.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, Perez sat for an interview with regulators in recent months and acknowledged some of the trades. At some point during the investigation, the sources said the CFTC alerted federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who declined to open a criminal investigation.
Regulators at the CFTC have expressed a willingness to settle with Perez, and have discussed terms with him that would require Perez to give back his profits and refrain from making similar trades, according to sources familiar with the ongoing discussions.
Kalshi has a policy against users placing bets based on information obtained as part of their jobs.
Last month, the company updated its policies to require users to disclose their place of employment.
“If you have information by virtue of your job or your employment, something that you have a legal duty surrounding, and you have an obligation not to take that, misappropriate it for yourself,” DeNault told ABC News in May.
The Department of Justice in recent months brought the two first cases of insider trading on prediction markets, involving a special forces soldier who allegedly bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and, separately, a Google employee who allegedly bet on user searches using internal company data. Both pleaded not guilty.
President Trump has occasionally criticized prediction markets, but said in April that he supports them because the United States could be “left out in the cold” if the country does not allow companies like Kalshi and Polymarket to operate.
“Well the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world in Europe and every place they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is,” Trump told reporters.
Last October, Trump’s social media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, announced it was looking into launching its own prediction market offering.
Preparations continue for the Ultimate Fighting Championship Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn on June 05, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — One week ahead of the White House hosting an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, a public interest law firm is attempting to stop the high-profile sports event from taking place.
In a lawsuit filed this weekend, the Public Integrity Project — representing a political activist and Vietnam veteran — claimed the event was improperly permitted, skipped an environmental review, and is an extraordinary use of public land to benefit President Donald Trump and his allies.
They asked a federal judge to declare the authorization for the event, framed around the country’s 250th anniversary, unlawful. Scheduled to take place on Sunday, which is also President Trump’s birthday, the UFC plans to host a mixed martial arts event in a caged octagon on the South Lawn of the White House, as well as host thousands of fans at the nearby Ellipse.
“The President is giving [Dana] White and his company what none have enjoyed before: unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private, for-profit sports event, with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access,” the lawsuit said.
The White House and UFC did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Calling the event “deeply corrupt,” the lawsuit alleged that the Trump administration improperly used a temporary rule for “America 250” to bypass the permitting requirements normally required to host events on National Park Service land. They argue that because the event is being organized by a private entity, not the federal government, and is not explicitly “for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence,” the fight does not qualify for that temporary rule.
“It is not in any material sense a ‘celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence’—it is, instead, a celebration of the UFC’s brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump’s birth,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also alleged that the construction of the 600-ton steel arch over the South Lawn should have undergone an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The lawsuit was filed by a retired government employee who frequently attends protests and other events near the National Mall and White House as well as a Vietnam War veteran who said he frequently enjoys the DC landscape while working part-time as a rideshare driver. The lawsuit alleged they are suffering “aesthetic, dignitary, and procedural harms as a result of Defendants’ unlawful acts.”
Lawsuits challenging Trump’s attempt to reshape the White House and DC have had a mixed track record, in part because judges are often skeptical if plaintiffs have standing to sue. A judge attempted to block construction of Trump’s ballroom before his ruling was lifted by an appeals court. Lawsuits challenging his planned arch, golf course renovations and the repainting of the reflecting pool have so far been unsuccessful in stopping work. As of Sunday, the case was assigned to Judge Amit Mehta, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
In addition to alleging improper permitting and a lack of a necessary environmental review, the lawsuit alleged that Trump and his allies are profiting from the event. The lawsuit noted that Trump owns some stock in UFC’s parent company, that the UFC is selling VIP packages for more than $1 million while offering sponsorships to an overseas cryptocurrency exchange, and how the fight is being streamed through the UFC’s broadcast partner Paramount Skydance.
In this photo illustration, a Kalshi logo is seen displayed on a smartphone on the top of a laptop. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — New York sued Kalshi on Friday, alleging its prediction market is nothing more than illegal, unlicensed gambling, in large part because outcomes depend more on chance than skill.
The lawsuit does not seek to close down Kalshi, but, if successful, it could dent its ability to operate.
Kalshi insists its event contracts are federally regulated derivatives outside the scope of state gaming laws but New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit said Kalshi is merely seeking “to avoid the legal and financial consequences of New York’s close regulation of gambling by offering what is quintessentially wagering.”
“It’s sad to see this type of political theater from the leadership in our own state. States can’t just shut down a federally licensed exchange,” Elisabeth Diana, Kalshi’s Head of Communications told ABC News. “This would also hurt New Yorkers, who would be driven offshore. We love New York, we love New Yorkers, and New Yorkers love our product.”
The lawsuit alleged Kalshi violates state laws prohibiting wagering on games involving New York college teams and all sports betting for those under 21.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has said prediction markets are its exclusive purview, filed for a temporary restraining order to halt the state’s lawsuit.
“New York’s gambling laws protect children from underage betting and help combat gambling addiction,” James said in a statement. “No matter what they call themselves, prediction makers like Kalshi are gambling platforms, plain and simple.”
The lawsuit sought a court order demanding Kalshi submit to state regulators and taxes, to forfeit illegal profits and pay restitution to users nationwide, a possible penalty that could cost Kalshi an estimated $36 billion, according to a statement of facts accompanying the lawsuit.
“Kalshi has chosen to ignore New York’s gambling laws, which exist to protect consumers, prevent problematic gambling, deliver funding for critical public services and ensure that every company plays by the same rules,” Governor Kathy Hochul said.
