U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee has all but disappeared from paid testimonials peddling Relaxium sleep pills following a NOTUS investigation into his financial relationship with the product’s manufacturer.
The American Behavioral Research Institute, which has faced scrutiny by courts and federal regulators, has scrubbed a Relaxium endorsement video featuring Huckabee from its website homepage and removed his voice from its toll-free customer service number.
The U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, where Huckabee serves as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, said Huckabee has not amended a name, image and likeness contract he signed with Relaxium’s makers prior to Trump nominating him as ambassador in February.
“The ambassador has not requested anything in relationship to the ads,” the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem wrote in an unsigned statement. “As per his own ethics agreement with the State Department, he has had no contact with them since confirmation.”
The Embassy added: “Any decision to air or not to air them lies solely and exclusively with the company as they own the content and the license to use it.”
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Other social media videos of Huckabee touting the benefits of Relaxium have also disappeared in recent days. And the Heroes & Icons television network, which had regularly aired Relaxium commercials featuring Huckabee in the Washington, D.C., market, appears to have stopped doing so.
Representatives for the American Behavioral Research Institute did not respond to emails and phone messages seeking comment about why Huckabee’s Relaxium advertisements are gone.
NOTUS previously reported that in the year prior to his nomination as ambassador to Israel, the makers of Relaxium paid Huckabee $414,683 for “spokesman endorsement fees,” according to a personal financial disclosure statement Huckabee filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
Huckabee separately disclosed that he “anticipated” he’d receive “residual payments for advertising” from Relaxium’s makers. The value of these anticipated payments is “not readily ascertainable,” Huckabee told the Office of Government Ethics upon his nomination to serve as ambassador to Israel, a post to which the U.S. Senate confirmed him in April in a 53-46 vote.
Huckabee affirmed in a seven-page ethics agreement filed in March with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics: “I have licensed my name, image, and likeness. I will not enter any new licenses during my appointment to the position of ambassador. However, I will continue to get paid for previous licenses.”
The Trump-era Food and Drug Administration in April formally warned the American Behavioral Research Institute of “objectionable conditions” observed during a Relaxium-related inspection. The FDA, which declined comment last month, further accused the company of failing to “adhere to the applicable statutory requirements” governing “clinical investigations and the protection of human subjects.”
The American Behavioral Research Institute also paid a $925,000 court-ordered judgment in 2023 that stemmed from a complaint by several California district attorney offices that accused the company of failing to properly notify Relaxium customers that their trial subscriptions would automatically renew.
Huckabee’s name and image haven’t entirely vanished from Relaxium promotions.
As of Monday, several old Relaxium.com blog posts still laud Huckabee for his endorsement of Relaxium.
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