Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

AMAZON CEO BEZOS ALLEGES BLACKMAIL

STOP PROBE OR ELSE... AMI threatened to publicise his intimate photos, texts

- Yashwant Raj yashwant.raj@hindustant­imes.com

Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and The Washington Post, accused American Media Inc (AMI), a company with ties with US President Donald Trump, of trying to blackmail him.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, has accused American Media Inc (AMI), a company with longstandi­ng ties with US President Donald Trump, of trying to blackmail him with his intimate photos and private text messages.

Bezos wrote in a blog post on Thursday that AMI threatened to publish the texts and pictures if he did not stop an investigat­ion he had ordered into the publicatio­n last month by AMI’s National Enquirer of texts he had sent to Lauren Sanchez - a former news anchor with whom he was allegedly involved in an extramarit­al relationsh­ip.

Bezos and his wife MacKenzie announced they were separating just ahead of the publicatio­n of that report.

The threats were conveyed verbally and through emails from top executives of AMI, Bezos wrote. And he made the emails public in the blog post.

Apart from the demand to halt the investigat­ion, AMI sought a statement from Bezos that he and his investigat­ors “have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politicall­y motivated or influenced by political forces”.

AMI, which is the parent company of National Enquirer, is owned by David Pecker, who is a long-time friend of US President Trump and is currently cooperatin­g with prosecutor­s in the case involving hush money payment to women involving Trump.

AMI ran what is called in the media industry a “catch-andkill” operation - buy stories but never publish them, as it did with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who had a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006.

Bezos pointed to the US president’s ties to AMI in his blog post. “My ownership of the Washington Post is a complexifi­er for me. It’s unavoidabl­e that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy.

“President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets. Also, The Post’s essential and unrelentin­g coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedl­y unpopular in certain circles.”

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 ??  ?? Battle between US President Donald Trump (left) and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos intensifie­s.
Battle between US President Donald Trump (left) and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos intensifie­s.
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AGENCIES

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