In a personal blog post, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos claimed the National Enquirer is threatening to publish his "intimate photos."
Bezos said he's revealing the details rather than "capitulate to extortion and blackmail," adding the publication believed the photos were newsworthy because it's "necessary to show Amazon shareholders that my business judgment is terrible."
According to Bezos, American Media Inc (AMI) was upset over coverage of its ties with Saudi Arabia by the Washington Post, a newspaper Bezos has owned since 2013. It also wasn't happy that Bezos hired an investigator to look into how AMI got its hands on previously released private text messages.
Bezos was told by an AMI "leader" that the investigation infuriated the company's owner, David Pecker, for reasons unknown.
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AMI owns the National Enquirer, which in January published sexts between Bezos and news anchor Lauren Sanchez. Bezos hired an investigator, Gavin de Becker, to find out how the texts were obtained.
Bezos said AMI told him it had more intimate photos and texts from him, and blackmailed him by threatening to reveal more unless he stopped the Post's investigation. The Amazon CEO published an email from Dylan Howard, AMI's chief content officer, who detailed the images they had of Bezos and Sanchez:
In addition to the “below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’” — The Enquirer obtained a further nine images. These include:
· Mr. Bezos face selfie at what appears to be a business meeting.
· Ms. Sanchez response — a photograph of her smoking a cigar in what appears to be a simulated oral sex scene.
· A shirtless Mr. Bezos holding his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring. He’s wearing either tight black cargo pants or shorts — and his semi-erect manhood is penetrating the zipper of said garment.
· A full-length body selfie of Mr. Bezos wearing just a pair of tight black boxer-briefs or trunks, with his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring.
· A selfie of Mr. Bezos fully clothed.
· A full-length scantily-clad body shot with short trunks.
· A naked selfie in a bathroom — while wearing his wedding ring. Mr. Bezos is wearing nothing but a white towel — and the top of his pubic region can be seen.
· Ms. Sanchez wearing a plunging red neckline dress revealing her cleavage and a glimpse of her nether region.
· Ms. Sanchez wearing a two-piece red bikini with gold detail dress revealing her cleavage.
AMI and Pecker have been under the spotlight for their "catch and kill" tactic, in which the publication bought the silence of Karen McDougal, who allegedly had an affair with Donald Trump. The scheme was employed to help prevent damage to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
In December, AMI reached an immunity deal with prosecutors over the incident, after Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for facilitating the payment.
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On Friday morning, AMI issued a statement in which it said the company "believes fervently it acted lawfully" in dealing with the Bezos story and that "it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters" with Bezos when he made the allegations.
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Bezos said he was instructed by AMI to tell the press he had "no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI's coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces" — or else they would publish more private photos and texts.
Bezos said the emails "cement AMI’s long-earned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections, and ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism."
"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," he added.
"I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out."
UPDATE: Feb. 8, 2019, 9:28 a.m. EST This story has been updated to include statement from AMI.
Topics Amazon
