BEZOS BATTLES BLACKMAIL THREAT

Amazon CEO and the world’s richest person Jeff Bezos has accused the publisher of the tabloid National Enquirer, who has been described as a close friend of President Donald Trump, of trying to blackmail him over his explicit photos of himself. Bezos said that the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc ( AMI), wanted him to stop investigating how they had obtained his private messages.

Bezos instead decided to make the fight as public as it could possibly be. AMI demanded that me and security consultant Gavin de Becker, who is leading the probe, publically state we had “no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces”, Bezos added.

Bezos in his post, entitled “No thank you, Mr. Pecker” wrote, “Of course I don’t want personal

photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well- known practise of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out”.

Bezos, owns The Washington Post, a frequent target of Trump.

Bezos wrote, “President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets. The Post’s unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles.” Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten,” Bezos wrote.