Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger says a federal investigation into a bet on whether he’d be pardoned by then-president Joe Biden is “100%” political.
Kinzinger, a congressman from Illinois from 2011 to 2023, served on the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6, and was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach President Donald Trump for the attack on the Capitol.
Speaking to reporters Thursday before WGLT's event at Illinois State University, Kinzinger said the investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal regulator that oversees prediction markets, was just the latest instance of Trump persecuting his enemies.
“I mean, this is what this administration tries to do. They have said from the beginning, since they got re-elected, that they were going to put all of us in jail. So they try to find anything they can, and what they find is a $199 Kalshi bet.”
Kinzinger’s response?
“OK. Bring it.”
The bet was one of about 25 Kinzinger says he made over a two-month period, and it centered on whether he’d be pardoned by Biden. He acknowledges it was “a dumb bet,” But as a private citizen who hadn’t been office for two years and wasn’t seeking office, he stressed repeatedly that it was not illegal.
“Yes, if I had a time machine, I'd go back and not do that. But the one thing I'm not going to do is pretend like there was anything unethical or illegal about it … I know for a fact that what I did was not a violation of the law, was not a violation from everything I've seen of Kalshi rules,” he said.
Kinzinger added Kalshi’s rules say you cannot bet if you are connected to an agency involved in an action, and can’t have prior knowledge or influence over the situation.
“Clearly on this I couldn't. Never had a conversation with the White House. If they want to allege that, great. Good luck proving it, because I never had a conversation. I knew nothing,” he said.
He pivoted the focus to the choice to investigate over $190.
“Does Kalshi do that for every $190 bet that they question, or is it just me? … They probably looked into this, realized it was nothing, but they want to try to embarrass me with a headline that says I'm being investigated for financial ties. Bring it.”
Thursday's screening of the documentary The Last Republican and Q&A drew more than 1,000 people. It was hosted by WGLT and the Dirksen Congressional Center, the Pekin-based congressional archive that maintains Kinzinger’s official papers.
WGLT will broadcast a recording of the Q&A with Kinzinger at 7 p.m. Friday. You can listen on 89.1 FM or stream on WGLT.org or the NPR App.
