Bezos ’extortion’ bid

Amazon CEO says tabloid threatened to publish lewd photos

AMAZON chief executive Jeff Bezos said yesterday he was the target of “extortion and blackmail” by the publisher of the National Enquirer, which he said threatened to publish revealing personal photos of him unless he stopped investigating how other private photos and messages were obtained by the tabloid.

Mr Bezos, who is also owner of The Washington Post, de- tailed his interactions with American Media Inc. in an extraordinary blog post Thursday on the Medium.com website.

After the tabloid published a story about his extramarital affair last month, Mr Bezos ordered a team of private investigators to get to the bottom of how the Enquirer obtained lurid texts between the executive and former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. Since then, there’s been a public relations battle.

Earlier this week, the tabloid’s editor, Dylan Howard, emailed a lawyer for Mr Bezos’ longtime security consultant to describe photos the Enquirer “obtained during our news gathering.”

The photos include a “below the belt selfie” of Mr Bezos, photos of him in tight boxer-briefs and wearing only a towel, and several revealing photos of Ms Sanchez, according to the email Mr Bezos released in his blog post.

According to emails Mr Bezos posted, a lawyer for American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, offered a deal on Wednesday.

The tabloid wouldn’t post the photos if Mr Bezos and his investigators would release a public statement “affirming that they have no knowledge or basis” to suggest that the En

quirer’s coverage was “politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”

Last month, the Enquirer reported that Mr Bezos sent “sleazy text messages and gushing love notes” to Ms Sanchez, months before Mr Bezos announced he was splitting up with his wife, MacKenzie.