09 February, 2019
Mr Bezos is attempting to stop the U.S. tabloid from printing "intimate" photos of him and TV host Lauren Sanchez after he questioned how they accessed his private messages.
Bezos subsequently hired a private investigator to find the source of those leaked text messages, and determine whether the publication was looking to use the alleged affair as political payback for the reporting of the Washington Post, which the Amazon CEO acquired back in 2013.
"Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've chose to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten", Bezos wrote in a post on Medium.
"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". It says it'll take "whatever appropriate action is necessary".
The relationship between the National Enquirer and Trump has been repeatedly scrutinized by the media, given the president's long friendship with AMI chief executive David Pecker.
(AMZN.O) founder and chief executive officer published a blog post on Thursday, alleging that the publisher of the National Enquirer tried to blackmail him with embarrassing photos of Bezos and a woman who wasn't his wife - including sexually charged selfies.
Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, is a frequent target for President Donald Trump, who has criticized the newspaper for its coverage. No matter how high-value your meetings get, there's always room for an "at work lol wbu" text.
In return for such an acknowledgement, according to the email, AMI offered "not to publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos".
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"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.
Bezos also suggested that the Washington Post's coverage of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have motivated the National Enquirer's investigation. The deal not to prosecute was conditional on AMI not committing another crime, the office said.
And the investigator, Gavin de Becker, looked into whether Pecker's National Inquirer is influence-peddling for Saudi Arabia for some sort of quid pro quo.
"I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering", Howard wrote, going on to say that the Enquirer had a "below the belt selfie" of Bezos, among other shots.
A spokesman for Bezos declined to comment on whether he has contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation or other law enforcement authorities about American Media's actions. And of course it's possible that the Enquirer might have sought to destroy Bezos believing that it'd please Trump but without ever being asked to do anything by the president.
In the blog post, Bezos pointed to AMI's CEO David Pecker's previous cooperation with Trump, including payments made to suppress negative stories, now under investigation by federal prosecutors.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. AMI helped Trump lawyer Michael Cohen suppress the stories of two of Trump's affairs during the 2016 presidential election campaign by either purchasing one, in one case, or, in the other, helping to arrange a deal for Cohen to purchase them, according to the government's criminal complaint against Cohen to which he pleaded guilty. (AMI), the parent company of the National Enquirer.
"Several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is "apoplectic" about our investigation", Bezos said.
