The stunning extortion claims made by Amazon and
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos against the Trump-friendly National
Enquirer tabloid — have spotlighted a fierce behind-the-scenes media
feud, taking place in an ever more toxic US political climate.
The supermarket tabloid last month reported
Bezos had an extramarital affair with a former news anchor, publishing a
trove of private text messages. The report appeared days after Bezos
and his wife Mackenzie announced their divorce.
That prompted Bezos to launch an investigation into the Enquirer, and how it was able to obtain such intimate material.
In a post on the online platform Medium, Bezos
said Enquirer publisher American Media Inc (AMI), led by David Pecker, a
friend of President Donald Trump, was now threatening to publish
intimate photos of him, if he did not call off the probe.
“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 wrote.
Bezos maintained that the Enquirer demanded
that he and his security consultant Gavin de Becker, who is leading the
probe, publically state they had “no knowledge or basis for suggesting
that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political
forces.”
Saudi connection?
The revelations appear to show the gossip
tabloid trying to smear Bezos — who Trump has repeatedly attacked as
the owner of The Washington Post, a paper he claims is biased against
him.
Bezos meanwhile hinted he may have
been targeted by pro-Trump forces in part because of the Post’s coverage
of the murder of its contributor Jamal Khashoggi, who was strangled and
dismembered by Saudi agents in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in
October.
“The Post’s essential and unrelenting coverage
of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular
in certain circles,” he wrote.
Although
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is accused of ordering the
assassination, the Trump administration has maintained there is no
irrefutable evidence of his involvement, while stressing the importance
of the strategic partnership between Washington and Riyadh.
Pointing at connections between Pecker, AMI
and the government of Saudi Arabia, Bezos said he learned that “Pecker
is ‘apoplectic’ about our investigation,” and that “the Saudi angle
seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve.”
American Media said in an emailed statement
that it “believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of
the story of Mr Bezos” and made “good faith negotiations” with the US
billionaire but had decided nonetheless to “promptly and thoroughly
investigate the claims” by the Amazon CEO.
Bezos pointed out that Pecker recently entered
into an immunity deal with federal prosecutors on his role in so-called
“catch and kill” stories — in which reports are quashed by paying off
sources — about Trump and his alleged mistresses.
But Pecker and his Enquirer colleagues could
face fresh criminal investigations based on the Bezos allegations,
according to former federal prosecutor Jacob Frenkel.
The allegations “easily could fall into
possible violations of federal criminal statutes involving extortion or
wire fraud,” the attorney said.
Deepening political feuds?
The case highlights a politically-tinged feud
between the Post owner and the supermarket tabloid, with Bezos asserting
that he would not be intimidated.
Releasing the email exchanges, he said, shows
“the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish
the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false
public statement to the press… And there’s an associated threat:
They’ll keep the photos on hand and publish them in the future if we
ever deviate from that lie.”
The disclosures are also likely to deepen the
rift between Bezos and Trump, who claims that the tech entrepreneur is
using the newspaper for his own purposes.
Taking aim last month at Bezos, Trump alluded
to Enquirer reporting of the billionaire’s relationship with the former
news anchor and entertainment reporter, Lauren Sanchez.
“So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo
being taken down by a competitor whose reporting, I understand, is far
more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon
Washington Post,” he tweeted.
The National Enquirer’s
publisher said it would open an internal investigation of claims of
extortion and blackmail of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
The New York Post cover
highlights the story of Amazon CEO revealing what was described as an
intimidation attempt by the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer and
its publisher David Pecker