David Pecker, the chief executive of American Media Inc., which publishes the tabloid National Enquirer, threatened to publish embarrassing photos of Jeff Bezos if he didn’t stop investigating Pecker’s company, according to the Amazon CEO.
Bezos revealed the alleged threat, which was sent through AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard, in a blog post published to Medium on Thursday. In it, Bezos also claimed that an “AMI leader” told him that Pecker was “apoplectic” over an investigation the Amazon founder had launched into Pecker’s companies.
“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, who also owns the Washington Post, wrote.
In the alleged letter to Bezos, Howard said its paper had obtained a “dick pic” of Bezos, as well as text messages and nine other images of Bezos and his mistress Lauren Sanchez. Bezos also published multiple emails, allegedly from AMI representatives, asking the Amazon CEO to release a public statement asserting that AMI’s reporting is not politically motivated.
“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 continued. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.” (our emphasis)You can read Bezos' statement here.
The significance of the highlighted paragraphs is that, in addition to extortion and blackmail, if AMI's gambit was politically motivated (as Bezos believes it was), there's this additional exposure:
AMI’s non-prosecution agreement that allowed it to avoid indictment for Cohen’s campaign finance crimes required that AMI not commit any new crimes. If AMI did so while attempting to extort Jeff Bezos, SDNY could likely go back and charge AMI for the hush-money FECA crimes too. pic.twitter.com/gCDBUdK8r9— Conor Marcus Shaw (@ConorMarcusShaw) February 8, 2019
Taking on the richest man in the world may not have been the smartest move by these Trumpists, but they clearly can't help themselves; it's in AMI's DNA. The faster their seedy, right- wing, ratf*cking empire can be brought down, the better, and Bezos has the bucks and motivation to do it.
BONUS: Others are coming forward to say they, too, were threatened by AMI for looking into the Trump- AMI connections.
BONUS II: Now Federal prosecutors are looking into the matter.
*Brazenly lifted from HuffPo.
Yep, if you come for the King, you'd better not miss.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to elevate Bezos to some high throne because he has issues I'm not thrilled about, but good for him standing up to threats by a slimeball rag of a newpaper. You can't be bullied if you stand up to a bully and Bezos did it just the right way: he confronted them publicly and he has the receipts to back himself up. That alone should make them turn tail, but the more interesting parts may be yet to be revealed. If AMI was acting under the influence of Trump, the legalities and bounceback will be monumental.
AMI will also stand to forfeit their immunity for further prosecution if this is determined to be a criminal act. Then their “catch and kill” policy is in danger.
They'll be digging in and trying to defend themselves at all costs, but I hope they get dragged out into full sunlight and shrivel up for good.
donnah -- how great would it be if this were another nail in Trump's coffin while at the same time causing this rancid rag empire to self- combust!
ReplyDeleteIt's a twofer I could go fer!
ReplyDelete