MAGA rep already wants Trump to pardon soldier who bet big on Maduro's capture

A GOP congresswoman wants to pardon the U.S. special forces soldier who was arrested after winning $400,000 by betting on the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

"Maybe not a popular take but I am calling for this guy to be pardoned," Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) posted Thursday on X.

Earlier in the day, a Manhattan federal court unsealed an indictment of Gannon Ken van Dyke, an active-duty member of the U.S. Army who bet $30,000 on the online prediction market Polymarket that Maduro would be out of power by the end of January. The U.S. military launched a raid and extradited him in early January.

Luna argued that the Department of Justice should be going after "all the crooks in Congress currently insider trading" and "unless the DOJ plans on doing Congress next, this is not justice" in her post.

"This is simply skewed justice," Luna wrote. "There is no 'justice' when guys like these get the book thrown at him yet members are illegally profiting every day."

She added that "I don't agree with what he did," but rather than end up behind bars, "he should be required to disgorge all the profits."