Anna Paulina Luna Calls on Trump To Pardon Solider Indicted for Allegedly Betting on Maduro’s Ouster Willa Pope Robbins Apr 23rd, 2026

                  

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Anna Paulina Luna Calls on Trump To Pardon Solider Indicted for Allegedly Betting on Maduro’s Ouster

Willa Pope RobbinsApr 23rd, 2026

Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called on President Donald Trump to pardon the U.S. soldier indicted for allegedly betting on the ouster of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was directly involved in the operation that captured Maduro and his wife, a Manhattan federal court alleged in an indictment on Thursday. Van Dyke allegedly placed $33,000 worth of bets that the Venezuelan leader would be removed as president on Polymarket, betting a series of times up to the day Maduro was captured.

The indictment claims that Van Dyke placed thirteen bets on multiple events related to Maduro, including “bets on the timing and outcome” of the operation to remove him. The plays allegedly made him over $409,000, sparking an investigation into the suspiciously timed bets. Van Dyke attempted to hide his winnings through cryptocurrency and a brokerage account, going so far as to delete his Polymarket account by claiming he had lost access to the email the account was under.

Trump commented on the indictment Thursday, after being asked by press in the Oval Office if he was concerned about its implications for federal employees.

“Well, you know, 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,” he said. “But it is what it is. No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff, but they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”

Luna urged the president to grant clemency to Van Dyke, posting on X that the indictment represented “skewed justice.”

“Maybe not a popular take but I am calling for this guy to be pardoned. Unless the DOJ plans on going after all the crooks in congress currently insider trading, this is simply skewed justice,” she wrote. “There is no ‘justice’ when guys like this get the book thrown at him yet members are illegally profiting every day. I don’t agree with what he did and he should be required to disgorge all the profits however, unless the DOJ plans on doing Congress next, this is not justice.”

Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) agreed with his colleague, calling the move “selective enforcement” and reiterating Luna’s push for regulation on congressional stock trading.

“I think this guy should be pardoned. If the DOJ isn’t prepared to go after every member of Congress who’s profiting off insider trading, then this feels like selective enforcement, not justice,” he wrote. “I don’t support what he did, and he should absolutely have to give back every dollar he made. But holding one person accountable while others get a pass undermines the idea of equal justice under the law. @POTUS should make this decision at his discretion not the DOJ.”

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FAIR: NYT Blames Maduro for Healthcare Horror, Downplays US Role

View article on FAIR's website NYT Blames Maduro for Healthcare Horror, Downplays US Role Bryce Greene Online headline for a New York Times report (4/10/20) on childbirth in Venezuela. The New York Times (4/10/20) published an article describing the horrendous shape of the Venezuelan healthcare system. The human interest story, written by Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera, followed several women through their nightmarish journey of childbearing in a broken medical system. The piece would be outstanding reporting, had it not fumbled the most important aspect of the story: how and why the system is as bad as it is. In true “manufacturing consent” fashion, the piece downplayed the US role in destabilizing the Venezuelan economy, and instead pointed to President Nicolás Maduro’s “authoritarianism” as the primary cause of the crisis. The piece appeared on the Times’ front page on Saturday. The section of the piece visible on the front page pointed to Maduro as the cause for Venezuela’s healthcare problem, saying the system had been “crippled by a broken economy overseen by an increasingly authoritarian government.” The story continued on an inside page, where it finally referenced the US role in creating the desperate conditions. The reporters briefly mentioned that Maduro claimed that US sanctions had some effect, but quickly brushed the claim aside, citing “analysts and critics” who said that Maduro’s charge had “only some weight.” New York Times image (4/10/20) of childbirth at a Venezuelan public hospital. To back this up this dismissal, the authors cited Feliciano Reyna, the founder of a nonprofit known as Action for Solidarity. Reyna blamed the Maduro administration for refusing to accept help from aid organizations. He indicated that despite the sanctions, the country would be able to receive the supplies it needed from those organizations. However, a few paragraphs later, the piece stated the government had been attempting to receive help through the Red Cross for nearly a year now, throwing Reyes’ criticism into doubt. The contradiction was not addressed by the reporters, and the doublethink was allowed to go unchallenged, even as the piece acknowledged that the Red Cross has been failing to meet Venezuela’s needs, due to a lack of funds, and quoted Venezuela Red Cross leader Louis Farias, who said that their chapter’s call for help “didn’t get the backing [they] had hoped.” The New York Times omitted other statements from the Red Cross organization that shed more light on the role the US has played. Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of the Red Cross, stated publicly last year that he believed that “political will” was behind the lack of funding for Venezuela. He said that there are some who wanted “to use the civilian population, their desperation, as a tool to destabilize the country.” Rocca pointed out that “it is easier to receive funds for Syria and even for Yemen.” Later in the piece, the reporters cited economist Asdrúbal Oliveros, who claimed that “Mr. Maduro had simply chosen to prioritize the import of oil and food over medicine.” Oliveros believes the calculus was based on the fact that “pregnant women and sick people don’t protest—but that hungry people do.” No explanation was offered for why it’s Maduro’s fault that his administration has been forced to choose between essential resources for his country. The piece merely calls Oliveros “one economist,” failing to disclose that he has been part of the Venezuelan opposition backing would-be president Juan Guaidó in an ongoing US-backed coup attempt against Maduro. Oliveros was described by the pro-Guaidó publication Americas Quarterly (4/18) as one of the “10 People Who Will (One Day) Rebuild Venezuela.” Infant mortality in Venezuela continued a long-term decline after the election of Hugo Chavez in 1999—but began resurging in 2015, the year President Barack Obama first imposed sanctions on Venezuela (substantially toughened by Donald Trump in 2017). The New York Times and other elite media have played an important role in mobilizing the US public against the Maduro government. They have highlighted the very real hardships on the ground, while casting blame for them almost exclusively on the “authoritarian” Maduro government (which, despite media's constant implications, won an internationally observed election with more than 4 million more votes over the president’s closest rival—FAIR.org, 5/10/19). They consistently downplay the role of US sanctions in contributing to the dire economic situation (FAIR.org, 2/6/19, 6/26/19, 3/25/20). If the Times were concerned about the fate of the women it profiled, and the state of Venezuelan economy, the paper would direct its readers to the sources of instability for which they bear the most responsibility. US sanctions have decimated the Venezuelan economy, as was predicted by analysts when they were first imposed. One 2019 study from the Center for Economic Policy Research found that the sanctions had indirectly caused the deaths of 40,000. Portraying Maduro as the sole reason for the country’s crisis is factually incorrect and journalistically irresponsible. Featured image: New York Times photo (4/10/20) of a pregnant woman seeking medical help at a Venezuelan hospital.

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