Birthday wishes from Rudy Giuliani? That will cost you

For $325, Rudy Giuliani will tell you a story or wish you a happy birthday.

The longtime Donald Trump adviser, facing mounting legal bills and a criminal investigation, said on Tuesday he had signed up for Cameo, a website that lets celebrities sell video greetings to fans.

“Hi, it’s Rudy Giuliani, and I’m on Cameo,” Giuliani says in a welcome video posted to his page. “If there’s an issue of concern you would like to discuss, or a story you would like to hear or share with me, or a greeting that I could bring to someone that would bring happiness to their day, I would be delighted to do it. It can be arranged, and we can talk through the magic of Cameo.”

Giuliani’s page on Cameo initially listed the price of a video message as $199. But sometime on Wednesday, the price was changed to $325.

Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment. His lawyer, Bob Costello, declined to comment.

In June, Giuliani’s allies created a “Freedom Fund” for public donations to help the former New York mayor and Manhattan U.S. attorney with his legal woes.

Giuliani’s business dealings with Ukrainian oligarchs while he was working as a lawyer for Trump, the former president, are the subject of a probe by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Federal agents searched his home and office in April, seizing phones and computers.

Giuliani has denied claims of wrongdoing, and his lawyers have suggested the investigation is politically motivated.

He also faces a $1.3 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, the equipment maker he falsely asserted stole the 2020 presidential election from Trump by flipping votes. He has argued his statements were free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

On Wednesday, a judge denied a request by Giuliani to dismiss the case on technical grounds. Giuliani is expected to make another attempt to dismiss the lawsuit.

A New York court suspended Giuliani from practicing law in June, finding that he had made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements against the integrity of the election.

(Reuters)