Bezos cries ‘ blackmail’ over intimate photos
Washington, Feb. 8: Amazon chief Jeff Bezos accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail”. In a blogpost that was posted on Medium, he alleged it threatened to publish revealing personal photographs unless the Amazon chief executive publicly affirmed the paper’s reporting was not politically motivated.
Bezos, the world’s richest man owning the Washington Post, became the subject of tabloid papers in January after he and his wife, MacKenzie, announced they were divorcing. Shortly after, the National Enquirer published “intimate text messages” revealing Bezos’ relationship with Lauren Sánchez, a former TV anchor.
Bezos wrote that he employed private security consultant Gavin de Becker “to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer”, published by American Media Inc ( AMI).
Bezos said an AMI leader subsequently told him that David Pecker, the chief executive of AMI, was apoplectic about the private investigation. In the blogpost, titled “No thank you, Mr Pecker”, Bezos accused AMI of telling him “they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation”.
Bezos said his ownership of the Washington Post was a “complexifier” because it had made him the enemy of people including Donald Trump, who has frequently targeted him. Pecker is a longtime confidant of the president.
In December, prosecutors in the southern district of New York gave AMI immunity from prosecution for its cooperation in the investigation into Trump’s presidential campaign and alleged hush payments to a Playboy model. AMI admitted the company had coordinated with Trump’s presidential campaign to “catch and kill” — buy up but not publish — the story of Karen McDougal, the model who claimed she had an affair with Trump. AMI admitted it had worked “in concert” with the campaign to pay McDougal $ 150,000 for her story and then suppress it. Bezos noted in the blogpost that AMI had entered into the immunity deal.