OPINION:
In the 1980s, baseball player turned manager Pete Rose was banned from the sport and, thereafter, from the Baseball Hall of Fame for betting on games.
Rose insisted that, even while serving as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, he never bet against his team. That wasn’t enough to satisfy his detractors.
The situation is similar in some ways to that of U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who is accused of using classified information to profit from the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and Mr. Maduro’s wife. Sgt. Van Dyke also said he was betting in favor of his own team, but he allegedly used classified information to do so.
In a 14-page, five-count indictment against him issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Sgt. Van Dyke is charged with unlawful use of government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, wire fraud, commodities fraud and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity.
The government states that the allegations are as follows. Master Sgt. Gannon Van Dyke was assigned to the Army’s Special Forces branch, the Green Berets.
During the course of his assignment, he signed two nondisclosure agreements that entitled him to access highly classified information. Not only was he privy to details of Operation Absolute Resolve (the Maduro snatch), but he was also involved in its planning and execution, according to the indictment.
At this point, we must consider Polymarket, a website that enables betting on world events. It allows people to buy “shares” in events that may or may not happen. In the fall and winter of 2025, Polymarket began offering “contracts” that allowed people to bet on whether U.S. military forces would be in Venezuela by certain dates.
It also posted bets on whether Mr. Maduro would be removed from power by certain dates.
According to the indictment, Sgt. Van Dyke created a Polymarket account. Between Dec. 27, 2025, and Jan. 2, 2026, he purchased “yes shares” totaling about $34,000 in the Maduro markets and traded them on 13 occasions.
As a result of President Trump’s order, Mr. Maduro and his wife were taken from Venezuela to face justice in U.S. courts, specifically the Southern District of New York.
Thus, the allegations continue, Sgt. Van Dyke profited by nearly $410,000 from his Polymarket transactions. He, the allegations continue, sought to conceal his identity and his Polymarket transactions by transferring them to newly created brokerage accounts.
Sgt. Van Dyke faces a possible 40-year prison sentence if he is convicted on all five counts.
It seems impossible to defend Sgt. Van Dyke’s alleged conduct, but some do. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican, called on Mr. Trump to pardon Sgt. Van Dyke for his alleged crimes.
She wrote on X: “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.”
Congress’ insider trading is infamous. Many of its members use nonpublic information to enrich themselves, but there is an enormous difference between the nonpublic information (not top secret) that Congress uses for insider trading and the trust placed in our military to keep secrets secure. In this case, the information Sgt. Van Dyke allegedly used was almost certainly top secret.
The federal code’s definition of “Top Secret” says that if such information is divulged, it could be expected to cause “exceptionally grave damage” to national security. Such information is not the usual secrets of the marketplace; it is the highest and most valuable secrets of the nation.
Ms. Luna is right, in one respect. Information used in insider trading should not be used in that manner, and the Justice Department should do its job to prosecute those found to be engaging in insider trading.
The cases against Sgt. Van Dyke, however, are far more serious. If found guilty, he should be punished as harshly as the law allows.
• Jed Babbin is a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Times and a contributing editor for The American Spectator.
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