‘Enquirer’ denies bid to blackmail Bezos with sexually explicit photos
THE publisher of the ‘National Enquirer’ said yesterday it will look into claims of extortion and blackmail made by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, who said the tabloid threatened to publish intimate photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the ‘Enquirer’ obtained his private exchanges with his mistress.
American Media Inc said it “acted lawfully” while reporting the story.
The company’s statement is the latest twist in a high-profile clash between the world’s richest man and the leader of America’s best-known tabloid, who is a strong backer of President Donald Trump.
Mr Bezos’s investigators have suggested the ‘Enquirer’ coverage of his affair – which included the release of texts – was driven by dirty politics.
Mr Bezos, who is also owner of the ‘Washington Post’, detailed his interactions with American Media Inc, or AMI, in an extraordinary blog post on Thursday on Medium.com.
The billionaire did not say the tabloid was seeking money – instead, he said, the ‘Enquirer’ wanted him to make a public statement that its coverage was not politically motivated.
The company has admitted in the past that it engaged in what’s known as ‘catchand-kill’ practices to help Mr Trump become president. Mr Trump has been highly critical of Mr Bezos and the ‘Post’s’ coverage of the White House.
“Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favours, political attacks, and corruption,” Mr Bezos wrote of AMI, in explaining his decision to go public. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.”
The Bezos affair became public when the ‘Enquirer’ published a January 9 story about his relationship with Lauren Sanchez, a former TV anchor who is also married. Mr Bezos then hired a team of private investigators to find out how the tabloid got the texts and photos the two exchanged.
Mr Bezos’s personal investigators, led by his longtime security consultant, Gavin de Becker, concluded that Mr Bezos’s phone wasn’t hacked. Instead, they’ve been focusing on Ms Sanchez’s brother, according to a source familiar with the matter. Mr De Becker and his team suspect Michael Sanchez, a talent manager who touts his support of Mr Trump and is an acquaintance of Trump allies Roger Stone and Carter Page, may have provided the information to the ‘Enquirer’, the person said.
Mr Sanchez, who is also his sister’s manager, declined to
speak on the record and did not respond to an email seeking comment. In a tweet, he said Mr de Becker “spreads fake, unhinged conservative conspiracy theories” and “‘dog whistle’ smears”.
Several days ago, someone at AMI told Mr Bezos’s team that the company’s chief executive, David Pecker, was “apoplectic” about the investigation, Mr Bezos said. AMI later approached Mr Bezos’s representatives 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,” Mr Bezos wrote.
Mr Bezos wrote that this week, the tabloid’s editor, Dylan Howard, emailed an attorney for Mr Bezos’s longtime security consultant to describe photos the ‘Enquirer’ “obtained during our newsgathering”.
The photos include a “belowthe-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 emails Mr Bezos released.
According to the emails, an attorney for AMI offered a formal 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 the ‘Enquirer’s’ coverage
was “politically motivated or influenced by political forces”.
Mr Bezos said he decided to publish the emails sent to his team “rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail,” despite the “personal cost and embarrassment they threaten”.
In its January 9 story, the ‘Enquirer’ said reporters followed Mr Bezos and Ms Sanchez “across five states
and 40,000 miles” and “tailed them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates and ‘quality time’ in hidden love nests”.
It 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. The story carries the bylines of Mr Howard and two reporters.
AMI’s relationship with Mr Trump has gotten the company into hot water in the past. It admitted to ‘catch-andkill’ practices as part of a deal with federal prosecutors, who agreed not to pursue charges against the company.
AMI acknowledged secretly assisting Mr Trump’s campaign by paying $150,000 to a ‘Playboy’ model for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with the then-candidate. The company then intentionally suppressed the story until after the 2016 election.
‘I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out’