*Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has accused the National Enquirer of extortion and blackmail following last month’s exposé about his private life.
Bezos revealed details of the blackmail attempt in a personal blog post Thursday and noted that the tabloid had threatened to publish intimate photos and text messages between him and his lover Lauren Sanchez, unless he called off an investigation into who provided The National Enquirer with explicit text messages between Bezos and Sanchez.
The publication was the first outlet to detail their alleged affair, which many suspect was a politically motivated attack on the billionaire.
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In retrospect, this is interesting. pic.twitter.com/njlblWfhjU
— ʟᴇɪᴀ ɪɴ ʟᴀ ʟᴀ ʟᴀɴᴅ (@hey_leia) February 8, 2019
Per Complex:
David Pecker, the CEO of National Enquirer’s parent company American Media, is a longtime friend of President Donald Trump. Pecker previously admitted that in 2016 the publication paid ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 to ensure she did not publicize her alleged affair with then-candidate Trump. It’s also important to note that Bezos has become one of Trump’s most prominent adversaries. In 2015, Trump claimed the Bezos-owned Washington Post was a “scam” that was used to keep Amazon afloat. The president has also referred to Bezos as “Jeff Bozo” and has mocked the businessman’s pending divorce.
Bezos’ Thursday blog reads in part:
A few days after hearing about [Pecker’s] apoplexy, we were approached, verbally at first, with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.
My lawyers argued that AMI has no right to publish photos since any person holds the copyright to their own photos, and since the photos in themselves don’t add anything newsworthy.
[…] In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we “have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”
Bezos also published an email from National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard, which includes threats to release the racy photos and text messages involving Sanchez.
“Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten,” Bezos wrote.
“Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out,” he added.
Click here to read his full post titled “No thank you, Mr. Pecker”.
Pause a moment and consider the way Jeff Bezos was being threatened. Now envision what Trump’s pal at the National Enquirer has on Ted Cruz, and ask yourself why Cruz went from hating Trump to loving him. Now do the same thing for Lindsey Graham. And all those Evangelicals. ?
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) February 8, 2019
On Friday morning (Feb. 8), David Pecker responded to Mr. Bezos’ side of the story.
American Media said in a statement that the company “believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos.”
“Further, at the time of the recent allegations made by Mr. Bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him,” the company said. “Nonetheless, in light of the nature of the allegations published by Mr. Bezos, the Board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. Upon completion of that investigation, the Board will take whatever appropriate action is necessary.”
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