A lawyer who helped Kalshi win a key court fight against the federal government now helps the federal government protect Kalshi from state attorneys general.
Yaakov Roth, a former Jones Day white shoe lawyer who represented Kalshi in the landmark KalshiEX v. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) case, appeared by name on federal complaints filed yesterday against Illinois, Arizona, and Connecticut.
His current title is now Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division. These federal lawsuits argue that state gambling laws should have little jurisdiction over prediction markets due to the CFTC’s oversight.
In essence, the suits are attempts by the CFTC to protect Kalshi from state-level actions.
Roth joined the DOJ in February 2025. He had already secured a pivotal victory in late 2024 when the DC Circuit denied the CFTC’s emergency stay against Kalshi’s event contracts contingent on US elections. In January 2025, Roth argued the full appeal, then joined DOJ. The CFTC later dropped its appeal against Kalshi in May 2025 in a victory for Roth.
The Biden-era CFTC disapproved of Kalshi’s proposed congressional control election contracts in 2023. Kalshi then sued the CFTC, challenging that decision. By May 2025, the Trump-era CFTC voluntarily dropped the commissioners’ appeal.
Now at the US government’s DOJ instead of Kalshi’s law firm Jones Day, Roth has been found on a team on the other side of the “v.” (versus) separator in lawsuit titles involving Kalshi.
The Kalshi-government lawyer pipeline
Roth is not the only former Kalshi lawyer to land a government job.
Eliezer Mishory, Kalshi’s former General Counsel lawyer, stepped down in March 2025 to take a DOGE-linked role at the SEC, where his title is Senior Advisor to the Chairman.
Mishory previously worked at the CFTC under Brian Quintenz.
Read more: Are Polymarket and Kalshi decentralized?
Quintenz, a former CFTC commissioner, has sat on Kalshi’s board since 2021.
Trump nominated Quintenz as Chairman of the CFTC in February 2025. However, his nomination was withdrawn in September 2025 amid mounting concerns, such as documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealing his incoming staff seeking CFTC information about Kalshi’s competitors or the Winklevoss twins lobbying Trump directly against his candidacy.
Kalshi also has another strong connection to the White House via Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. He has served as an advisor to Kalshi and as an advisory board member of Polymarket; additionally, he is an investor in Polymarket through a venture capital firm, 1789 Capital.
The federal government that sued Kalshi now cushions it from states
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour celebrated Roth’s DOJ appointment on LinkedIn. “Without Yaakov Roth’s legal guidance and leadership, prediction markets in America wouldn’t be where they are today,” Mansour wrote. He called Roth “arguably one of the best appellate litigators in the country” and added, “We couldn’t be more excited for him and his next journey at the DOJ.”
Indeed.
The three state-level lawsuits involve cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi, Polymarket, and other prediction market operators.
Arizona went furthest. It filed 20 criminal charges against Kalshi in March 2026, including four counts of election wagering.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, a Trump appointee, declared in February that the agency would “no longer sit idly by” while states challenged its authority. His Innovation Advisory Committee includes executives from Kalshi, Polymarket, FanDuel, and DraftKings. Its 35 members are almost entirely industry executives.
Sports betting accounted for the majority of Kalshi’s trading volume in recent months. The company reported over $1 billion in Super Bowl trading volume alone. States call those trading contracts gambling. The Trump administration calls them non-gambling derivatives or prediction markets; specifically, it considers them commodity event contracts.
The question is probably not whether the revolving door between Kalshi and federal agencies spins. It is whether any lawyer, or anyone, plans to stop it.
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