Amazon's Bezos says National Enquirer owner tried to blackmail him

[webfact]

Amazon's Bezos says National Enquirer owner tried to blackmail him

By Jeffrey Dastin and Nandita Bose

 

FILE PHOTO: Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin and CEO of Amazon, speaks about the future plans of Blue Origin during an address to attendees at Access Intelligence's SATELLITE 2017 conference in Washington, U.S., March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com Inc, has accused the owner of the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him with the threat of publishing "intimate photos" he allegedly sent to his girlfriend unless he said in public that the supermarket tabloid's reporting on him was not politically motivated.

 

The accusation, published in a blog post, is the latest twist in a weeks-long saga that has brought the world's richest person's private life into the spotlight and thrusts him deeper into a battle with the leading U.S. tabloid publisher, which has had close links with the president of the United States.

 

"Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption," Bezos wrote. "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out."

 

American Media Inc (AMI), the owner of the National Enquirer, did not immediately return a request for comment.

 

Bezos and his wife announced last month that they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage, following a period of "loving exploration" and trial separation. That same day, the National Enquirer touted it was publishing alleged intimate text messages between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, a former television anchor whom he was said to be dating.

 

Shortly after that, Bezos opened an investigation into the leak led by Gavin de Becker, a longtime security consultant and former appointee of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. De Becker proceeded to tell media that the leak was politically motivated.

 

Bezos, Amazon and the newspaper he owns privately, the Washington Post, have all been targets of attacks on Twitter by U.S. President Donald Trump.

 

The Washington Post has published many articles critical of the president. It acts as Amazon's "chief lobbyist," Trump has said on Twitter, without presenting evidence. Trump called Bezos "Jeff Bozo" in a tweet last month about the National Enquirer's coverage of his divorce.

 

"It’s unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy," Bezos wrote. "President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets."

 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

In his blog, Bezos cited an email from AMI deputy general counsel, Jon Fine, to a lawyer representing de Becker. In it, AMI proposed a public acknowledgment from Bezos and de Becker that "they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that (AMI's) coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces."

 

In return for such an acknowledgement, according to the email, AMI offered "not to publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos."

 

Bezos said the statement AMI was proposing was false and described the offer as an "extortionate proposal."

 

Fine and de Becker could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

The alleged extortion raises questions among some legal observers about whether AMI and its chief executive David Pecker have violated a cooperation agreement AMI made last year with federal prosecutors in connection with a $150,000 hush-money payment given to Karen McDougal, the Playboy model who claims she had an affair with President Donald Trump.

 

The payment was made during the 2016 presidential election to influence that election, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). The deal not to prosecute was conditional on AMI not committing another crime, the office said.

 

A spokesman for the SDNY attorney's office declined to comment on the matter.

 

Bezos, who owns more than $120 billion in Amazon stock, said in his blog: "If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?"

 

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jeffrey Dastin in Washington; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne in New York, Chris Sanders in Washington and Bill Tarrant in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Rigby)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-08

[lannarebirth]

Not a fan of the National Enquirer, at all, but this monopolist, fascistic, slave driving, bean counting, A-hole deserves everything coming to him. I hope someone can break him and start the process of breaking his business up, for the betterment of all.

[Solinvictus]

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

"Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption," Bezos wrote. "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out."

 

Really nice approach.  LOG

[Solinvictus]

1 minute ago, lannarebirth said:

Not a fan of the National Enquirer, at all, but this monopolist, fascistic, slave driving, bean counting, A-hole deserves everything coming to him. I hope someone can break him and start the process of breaking his business up, for the betterment of all.

 

Im not either. But didn't he increase wages for everyone?

 

Also, who has empowered his facilities? Who has welcomed his facilities into their cities? Several cities across the U.S. They give incentives etc for him to set up his shop there. Hell, if I was warmly welcomed with my business, I would too.

 

I may not know all the details about him so please enlighten me.

[lannarebirth]

3 minutes ago, Solinvictus said:

 

Im not either. But didn't he increase wages for everyone?

 

Also, who has empowered his facilities? Who has welcomed his facilities into their cities? Several cities across the U.S. They give incentives etc for him to set up his shop there. Hell, if I was warmly welcomed with my business, I would too.

 

I may not know all the details about him so please enlighten me.

 

The people who collect taxes welcome him. Not for the taxes they will collect from his business but for the taxes they will collect from his employees and the businesses where those employees spend their paychecks and from the income the landlords of those employees earn.  The employee's money disappears into taxes, the corporations money disappears to shareholders.

[Solinvictus]

3 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

The people who collect taxes welcome him. Not for the taxes they will collect from his business but for the taxes they will collect from his employees and the businesses where those employees spend their paychecks and from the income the landlords of those employees earn.  The employee's money disappears into taxes, the corporations money disappears to shareholders.

Yeah, true. I think our issues should be directed at the gov not on him entirely. Although, he should do even more. Apparently, he is kinda cheap among billionaires.

 

But hey Americans keep voting for mainstream narratives rather than real progressive changes.  I envy "yellow vests."

[lannarebirth]

57 minutes ago, Solinvictus said:

Yeah, true. I think our issues should be directed at the gov not on him entirely. Although, he should do even more. Apparently, he is kinda cheap among billionaires.

 

But hey Americans keep voting for mainstream narratives rather than real progressive changes.  I envy "yellow vests."

 

I don't disagree that governments should stop offering incentives to multi billion dollar corporations to set up shop in their locales. Seattle turned itself into a yuppie/homeless shithole catering to these A-holes. San Francisco the same. Used to be kids riding the buses. Not anymore, because there are no more kids. Just yuppies and belligerant homeless folks. 

[elmrfudd]

some karma on the way for the wapo propaganda machine.????????

[Boon Mee]

Well, the source for Bezos' trouble lies within himself - dick pics to his married g/f. 

C'mon! Stupid is as stupid does. 

[guest879]

another great man is about to be cut in half, maybe quarters.

[Solinvictus]

3 hours ago, lannarebirth said:

 

I don't disagree that governments should stop offering incentives to multi billion dollar corporations to set up shop in their locales. Seattle turned itself into a yuppie/homeless shithole catering to these A-holes. San Francisco the same. Used to be kids riding the buses. Not anymore, because there are no more kids. Just yuppies and belligerant homeless folks. 

As well as several places in the mid-west too right? Manufacturing, etc.

 

Are you venting? ha

 

All homeless are belligerent? Dam, pretty harsh words for people down. Should we just nuke them?

 

[RPCVguy]

Lots of comments about Bezos... and I'm no fan. The politically interesting part is that he's got written material from AMI - in an interstate email, that says AMI will publish more material if Bezos and the Washington Post don't cease and desist on their investigation of how AMI got a hold of their material. The written material can be construed as a threat, enough so as to put AMI and its CEO, David Pecker back in the cross-hairs.

"The alleged extortion raises questions among some legal observers about whether AMI and its chief executive David Pecker have violated a cooperation agreement AMI made last year with federal prosecutors in connection with a $150,000 hush-money payment given to Karen McDougal, the Playboy model who claims she had an affair with President Donald Trump. The payment was made during the 2016 presidential election to influence that election, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). The deal not to prosecute was conditional on AMI not committing another crime, the office said."

This is for the same crime that entangled Trump's lawyer, which got him a 3 year jail sentence... despite becoming cooperative.
 

[rgraham]

These two supposed news sources are on a level playing field as far as I am concerned. Both papers are little more than rags.

[Morch]

7 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Well, the source for Bezos' trouble lies within himself - dick pics to his married g/f. 

C'mon! Stupid is as stupid does. 

 

And, of course, if this would have happened to any one of your political darlings, you'd have done the indignant huff 'n puff dance by now.

 

Bezos might be many things, no doubt. By all accounts doesn't sound like a nice guy, to put it mildly. And yes, putting your nude pics on the net is stupid. All this doesn't make blackmail alright.

[heybruce]

AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, avoided prosecution for the same crimes that are sending Cohen to prison by entering into a plea agreement that is invalid if AMI commits any crimes in the next three years.  If AMI does commit any crime at all (littering, jaywalking, blackmail...) then AMI can be prosecuted for all the crimes it admitted to, and the evidence it provided can be used against it.

 

Bezos is embarrassed, but he'll be fine.  AMI and the National Enquirer are up sh*t creek. 

[metisdead]

Some off topic trolling posts have been removed. 

[longtom]

There could be a few more skeletons burried here considering Trump's proven connections with the Enquierer and his hatred for Bezos.

Sent from my ASUS_X008D using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[spidermike007]

Kudos to Bezos, for standing up to this creepy bully, and calling him out. He is causing this guy a great deal of pain, and embarrassment, all of which he richly deserves. Not making any sort of moral judgment about the affairs Bezos had. But, the way this politically motivated gangster went about his business, was beyond the pale. He was basically a Trump, political operative. Trump deserves to be called out too, whenever he engages in this kind of activity, which is 24/7.

[mtls2005]

So many juicy nuggets in this one...

 

AMI attorney previously worked for Amazon

 

Bezos's paramour's brother is close to Roger Stone, and other republican operatives

 

Who hacked his device(s)?

 

Headlines like "Bezos Exposes Pecker"

 

AMI miraculously gets a ton of cash to buy Bauer Media brands after being broke.

 

Why did the National Enquirer get the sudden interest in Bezos?

 

The Saudi link. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-publisher-pal-puts-saudi-propaganda-magazine-in-us-supermarkets

 

The WaPo link.

 

 

 

The Enquirer spent a ton of cash on the Bezos "investigation". But Bezos has Gavin de Becker working for him. Game, set and match.

 

Stick a fork in Pecker.