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.
