American Media, the publisher of the National Enquirer, has released a statement saying it “acted lawfully” in its reporting on Jeff Bezos, but that its board will “investigate” his claims that its executives attempted to blackmail him by threatening to release nude photos of the Amazon CEO.
The Amazon CEO published a blog post Thursday accusing the National Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail.”
“American Media believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos,” American Media said in a statement Friday morning. “Further, at the time of the recent allegations made by Mr. Bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him. Nonetheless, in light of the nature of the allegations published by Mr. Bezos, the Board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. Upon completion of that investigation, the Board will take whatever appropriate action is necessary.”
AMI’s board of directors consists of four men: David Pecker, Evan Ratner, Barry Schwartz, and David Hughes.
Pecker, AMI’s chairman and CEO, has been at the center of the controversy. He’s a longtime ally to Donald Trump, who has been critical of Bezos, Amazon, and the Washington Post. Pecker was reportedly granted immunity in a deal with federal prosecutors who are investigating payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump.
Another person on the board also has links to Trump: David Hughes once served as the chief financial officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts, up until it filed for bankruptcy in September 2014.
‘No thank you, Mr. Pecker’
On Thursday, Bezos surprised everyone by publishing a blog post titled “No thank you, Mr. Pecker” on Medium that detailed the National Enquirer’s threats to publish the billionaire’s nude photos.
Bezos wrote that AMI threatened to release the photos unless he stopped investigating who leaked his personal text messages to the National Enquirer. The texts between Bezos and former TV host Lauren Sanchez ended up in the paper’s exposé published just days after the Amazon CEO announced his divorce.
Instead of striking a deal, Bezos essentially decided to turn the tables entirely, risking the eventual leak of nude photos of himself and Sanchez in order to stop the alleged extortion and blackmail attempts in their tracks.
“I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out,” Bezos wrote in the blog post.
The National Enquirer got the scoop on the details of Bezos’ affair with Sanchez, but it’s the circumstances around how the publication obtained those details that is front and center of Bezos’ investigation.
Bezos’ private investigators have floated the possibility that the National Inquirer’s investigation into Bezos’ affair was politically motivated. In his blog post, Bezos says AMI also wanted him to take back that claim in exchange for not releasing his nude photos. The Amazon CEO also appears to hint at a potential Saudi Arabian connection, writing: “Several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is ‘apoplectic’ about our investigation. For reasons still to be better understood, the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve.”
This story is developing…
from Viral Update News http://bit.ly/2Dl9gbD
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