NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - MARCH 7, 2014: Political commentator and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Mike Huckabee continues to profit from a sleeping pill endorsement deal despite now holding one of the most important U.S. ambassador roles in the Trump administration. According to a new report from NOTUS, the ethics of the situation appear murky.
Huckabee previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007 and ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016. A staunchly conservative and evangelical Republican, he has been outspoken in his support for President Donald Trump over the years, loyalty which he parlayed into a significant job in the second Trump administration: U.S ambassador to Israel, one of the most visible and high-stakes diplomatic roles the federal government has to offer.
Prior to the start of this role, Huckabee served as a commercial spokesman for the American Behavioral Research Institute and its sleep aid supplement, Relaxium. According to reporting from NOTUS, as recently as this month, commercials starring the ambassador still aired on TV channels in Washington, D.C., despite his current role. The outlet noted that when it reached out to the company about the situation, the commercial stopped airing, and a recording of Huckabee's voice disappeared from a phone directory helping customers place an order for Relaxium. Versions of the commercial were still viewable on Facebook and Vimeo, however.
When reached for comment about the commercials, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem stressed that the ads were filmed prior to Huckabee's appointment as ambassador to Israel, and he is only identified as a past presidential candidate in them. The office also claimed that, per the agreement Huckabee signed with American Behavioral Research Institute, he has "no legal right" to ask American Behavioral Research Institute to drop his ads and “does not own or control that content."
In a financial filing to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics ahead of his nomination, Huckabee disclosed that he had been paid $414,683 for his Relaxium ads, and “anticipated” that he would continue to be paid “residual payments for advertising” for them in the future, the amount of which was “not readily ascertainable" at the time.
The Code of Federal Regulations states that government employees like Huckabee “may not use their public office for their own private gain” or “for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise.” However, the specifics of that rule are not clear in situations like this one, where prior endorsements continue to air and pay out residuals during an employee's tenure in federal office.
Ethics experts were much firmer on the matter.
“Government officials should not, and should not appear to be, endorsing a commercial product. Full stop,” Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at The George Washington University, told NOTUS. “This could easily lead one to believe that Ambassador Huckabee is in public service for private gain.”
Walter Shaub, an Obama-era federal ethics official, was even more blunt about the situation.
“Oh, for f—— sake,” Shaub said. “These people.”
In April, the FDA accused the makers of Relaxium of failing to “adhere to the applicable statutory requirements” for “clinical investigations and the protection of human subjects.” Huckabee's office did not respond to NOTUS's questions about that issue, but did say that the ambassador had used the product for years before the endorsement deal and did see it as a conflict with his current role.
"Ambassadors need to sleep, too," the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem told NOTUS in a statement.