Plan B Forum

'Extortion and blackmail': Jeff Bezos goes public with National Enquirer correspondence

Jeff Bezos is taking what he calls an attempt at "extortion and blackmail" public after investigating how the National Enquirer got a hold of his text messages.

A few weeks after Jeff Bezos' sexts were leaked, the Amazon founder has a response. Specifically to the National Enquirer, who he claims has resorted to "extortion and blackmail" to avoid any further investigation of why they published.

The National Enquirer published a selection of text messages between Bezos and his girlfriend, media personality Lauren Sanchez, earlier in the year, exposing what they called a four-month long relationship. Though the internet delighted in pouring across Bezos' specific form of expression, the billionaire stayed relatively mum on the issue, stating only that he wouldn't stand in the way of coverage.

Behind the scenes, according to a Medium post published by Bezos on Thursday, he enlisted the help of investigators to discover how National Enquirer got a hold his text messages.

In the post, Bezos says he was threatened with the further publication of not just sexts between him and Sanchez, but also intimate photos the pair sent each other, unless he released a statement saying the company was never "politically motivated or influenced by political forces."

Bezos notes in his post that AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, "recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their 'catch and kill' process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign." Bezos writes that he believes that his ownership of The Washington Post was part of what motivated the paper's publication of his messages.

AMI allegedly approached Bezos after learning about his private investigation into how they got his text messages and tried to convince him to shut the investigation down.

The photos in question include a "full-length body selfie of Mr. Bezos wearing just a pair of tight black boxer-briefs or trunks," and a "naked selfie in a bathroom," among others, according to an email allegedly sent by Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of AMI.

"In the interests of expediating this situation, and with The Washington Post poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of The National Enquirer's initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering." Howard allegedly wrote before describing a handful of photos. "It would give no editor pleasure to send this email. I hope common sense can prevail — and quickly."

AMI claims that the images were newsworthy, and thus they are not in violation of any copyright issues that would prevent them from publishing.

"These communications cement AMI's long-earned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections, and ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism," 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."

AMI allegedly approached Bezos after learning about his private investigation into how they got his text messages and tried to convince him to shut the investigation down.

In his post Mr. Bezos also appeared to imply that the tabloid company was doing the bidding of Saudi Arabia, quoting from a New York Times report last year: “After Mr. Trump became president, he rewarded Mr. Pecker’s loyalty with a White House dinner to which the media executive brought a guest with important ties to the royals in Saudi Arabia. At the time, Mr. Pecker was pursuing business there while also hunting for financing for acquisitions.”

The Post has been reporting determinedly on intelligence assessments that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the grisly murder of the Saudi dissident — and Post global opinion contributor — Jamal Khashoggi.

Federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York determined that the American Media payment was an illegal corporate contribution. Because the company cooperated with prosecutors, the authorities did not bring charges. But they made American Media sign onto a non-prosecution agreement, in which it affirmed that it had made the payment to “influence the election.”

That agreement, signed in September, stipulated that A.M.I. “shall commit no crimes whatsoever” for three years, and that if it did, “A.M.I. shall thereafter be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge.”

If American Media’s threat to publish the personal photos of Mr. Bezos is determined to have been criminal, it would find its deal with federal prosecutors in jeopardy.

Soon after the Enquirer’s story was published, President Donald Trump tweeted gleefully that Bezos (whom he called Bozo) was “being taken down by a competitor whose reporting, I understand, is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post.” That tweet spurred more speculation about the political relationship between Trump and the Enquirer. [My emphasis.]