Rudy Giuliani used election conspiracy theories to hawk vitamins, gold, and cybersecurity products: lawsuit

On Tuesday, The Washington Postreported that Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit against Trump ally and attorney Rudy Giuliani alleges he profited off of his voting machine conspiracy theories — by using them as a platform to hawk various products to Trump supporters.

The Dominion lawsuit seeks $1.3 billion in damages for harming the company's reputation with false claims that their voting machines were rigged, which has reportedly led to harassment and threats against their employees.

"Giuliani, the lawsuit alleges, knowingly spread falsehoods about the company to bolster Trump's failing attempts to overturn the reality of his election loss. But Giuliani had another incentive for doing so, the lawyers wrote: He 'cashed in by hosting a podcast where he exploited election falsehoods to market gold coins, supplements, cigars, and protection from 'cyber thieves,''" reported Drew Harwell. "The lawsuit frames Giuliani not as an ideological crusader but as a shrewd marketer eager to monetize his growing fan base, using the kinds of social-media-influencer techniques popular across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, including infomercial-style endorsements and promotional discount codes."

In one example highlighted in the lawsuit, the report noted, "For just $596, an online fraud-protection company that Giuliani called 'the only folks to trust that I know of' was selling four years of online defense from home-stealing 'cyber thieves.' 'Use code 'Rudy' — that's me — and sign up for 30 free days of protection,' Giuliani said, before resuming a diatribe about an international communist vote-stealing plot — and, later, another advertisement, in which he hawked dietary supplements."

This sales pitch is not unusual — for years, far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has funded his InfoWars webcast by selling so-called "nutraceutical" supplements to his viewers, including some of the same questionable products found at Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop blog.

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