[Our media columnist examined the unlikely power of The National Enquirer in December.]

Mr. Trump and Mr. Pecker were longtime friends — but the relationship between the two was said to be frayed in recent months, when American Media’s leadership entered into a deal with federal prosecutors looking into the company’s role in the hush payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Pecker and his associates had helped orchestrate the deals involving two women who alleged past affairs with Mr. Trump in “catch and kill” deals: the former Playboy model Karen McDougal and the porn star Stormy Daniels.

After The Enquirer made his private life public, giving Twitter wags and late-night hosts the chance to weigh in on his high-flown texting style, Mr. Bezos sprang into action, starting his own investigation of the tabloid’s motives and how it had come to possess his texts to Ms. Sanchez.

The Amazon founder, who at last count was worth $136 billion, suggested that he would spare no expense in taking the fight to the tabloid publisher. Leading the investigation was Gavin de Becker, Mr. Bezos’ longtime security chief, whom Mr. Bezos said he had instructed “to proceed with whatever budget he needed to pursue the facts in this matter.”

It was a bold move for someone who has often tried to evade the spotlight, even amid the frequent insults hurled his way by Mr. Trump, who has labeled the newspaper that Mr. Bezos purchased in 2013 as “The Amazon Post” and recently called him “Jeff Bozo” in a tweet.

[Mr. de Becker has advised celebrities on threats for decades.]

Mr. de Becker confirmed to The Daily Beast on Jan. 31 that he was leading the investigation into the matter of how the Enquirer had obtained the text messages. Not long afterward, The Post prepared an article exploring competing theories about the motivation behind the publication of the tawdry tale.

American Media made the next move, offering Mr. Bezos an offer that it wrongly assumed he could not refuse. And if he did say no? A future issue of The Enquirer would make him very unhappy, with the selfies and more of the steamy texts it had apparently obtained.

“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,” Mr. Bezos wrote. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.”</s>Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is hitting back at American Media, the owner of the National Enquirer, accusing reps connected to the tabloid of “extortion and blackmail.”

Bezos laid out the situation in a lengthy post on Medium, revealing a number of email exchanges between Dylan Howard, the chief content officer for AMI, and Martin Singer, the attorney for his lead investigator.

In his Medium post, Bezos wrote, “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.”

In the emails Bezos shared, Howard threatens that the Enquirer will publish a series of photos it has of Bezos and his girlfriend, former Los Angeles news personality Lauren Sanchez, including an explicit “below the belt selfie.”

In another email, AMI lawyer Jon Fine said the Enquirer wouldn’t publish the photos, texts and emails if Bezos were to release a statement “affirming that they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.” (USA Today)
• The Medium post is titled “No thank you, Mr. Pecker.” That’s the name of the owner of AMI, David Pecker.
• Bezos also notes how Pecker’s so-called “catch and kill” policy utilized to cover up a story about one of Donald Trump‘s alleged affairs.
• He also pointed out that AMI is being investigated for “various actions they’ve taken on behalf of the Saudi Government.”</s>Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, revealed in a sensational blog post on Thursday that he believed he was the victim of “extortion and blackmail” by the company behind The National Enquirer. He accused the company, American Media Inc., of threatening to release graphic photos of him.

[Read more on the Amazon founder’s accusation and the fallout.]

Legal definitions aside, there is a foolproof definition for blackmail and extortion, according to William N. Nettles, the United States attorney in South Carolina from 2010 to 2016.

“They are like fancy bullying,” Mr. Nettles said.

Extortion and blackmail are similar concepts with overlapping definitions. “They are very, very similar,” Mr. Nettles said. “You could say that blackmail is a specific subset of extortion.”</s>WASHINGTON (AP) - Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer of ‘extortion and blackmail’ over revealing personal photos.

The Washington Times welcomes your comments on Spot.im, our third-party provider. Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.</s>Amazon | The biggest e-commerce company in the world was conceived in founder Jeff Bezos' home garage in Bellevue, Washington. Amazon started off as an as an online bookstore, however, it took the company almost an entire year to sell their first book. Now, it is the world's largest online marketplace with a valuation of over $1 trillion.

Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com Inc, has accused the owner of the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him with the threat of publishing "intimate photos" he allegedly sent to his girlfriend unless he said in public that the supermarket tabloid's reporting on him was not politically motivated.

The accusation, published in a blog post, is the latest twist in a weeks-long saga that has brought the world's richest person's private life into the spotlight and thrusts him deeper into a battle with the leading U.S. tabloid publisher, which has had close links with the president of the United States.

"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," Bezos wrote. "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out."

American Media Inc (AMI), the owner of the National Enquirer, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Bezos and his wife announced last month that they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage, following a period of "loving exploration" and trial separation. That same day, the National Enquirer touted it was publishing alleged intimate text messages between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, a former television anchor whom he was said to be dating.

Since the affair, Bezos opened an investigation into the leak led by Gavin de Becker, a public safety expert and former appointee of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. De Becker proceeded to tell media that the leak was politically motivated.

Bezos, Amazon and the newspaper he owns privately, the Washington Post, have all been targets of attacks on Twitter by U.S. President Donald Trump.

"It‘s unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy," Bezos wrote. "President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets."

The suggestion that the National Enquirer's reporting on him was politically motivated concerned AMI, according to Bezos.

In his blog, Bezos reproduces an email from AMI deputy general counsel, Jon Fine, to a lawyer representing de Becker. In it, AMI proposes a public acknowledgment from Bezos and de Becker that "they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that (AMI's) coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces."

In return for such an acknowledgement, according to the email, AMI offered "not to publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos."

Bezos said the statement AMI was proposing was false and described the offer as an "extortionate proposal."

The alleged extortion raises questions about whether AMI and its chief executive David Pecker have violated a cooperation agreement AMI made last year with federal prosecutors in connection with a $150,000 hush-money payment given to Karen McDougal, the Playboy model who claims she had an affair with President Donald Trump.

The payment was made during the 2016 presidential election to influence that election, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The deal not to prosecute was conditional on AMI not committing another crime, the office said.

Clearly Bezos will have a civil claim against AMI if they chose to bring it, but the question is whether it is criminal," said David Berger, a litigation partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Bezos, who owns more than $120 billion in Amazon stock, said in his blog: "If in my position I can't stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?"</s>Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s richest man, has accused the National Enquirer of attempting to blackmail him by threatening to publish intimate pictures he had sent to his lover.

In a personal online post, Mr Bezos said that the owners of the Enquirer attempted “extortion and blackmail” to stop his investigation into how private text messages between him and Lauren Sánchez were leaked to the tabloid.

Mr Bezos, who is worth $150 billion (£115 billion), said that he was told by representatives of David Pecker, chairman of American Media Inc (AMI), owner of the Enquirer, to stop his investigation or else the publisher would print a series of explicit photographs of Mr Bezos, 55, and Ms Sánchez, 49. “Of course I…</s>American Media Inc., the National Enquirer publisher, announced Friday it will launch an investigation in light of blackmail allegations levied by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The board committed to taking “whatever appropriate action is necessary” once it completes its investigation of claims by Mr. Bezos, who charges that AMI threatened to release intimate photos of him unless he said the Enquirer’s coverage was not politically motivated.

“American Media believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos,” AMI said in a statement. “Further at the time of the recent allegations made by Mr. Bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him.”

Mr. Bezos accused the National Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail” in a Thursday blog post on Medium.

“Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?” he wrote.</s>LOS ANGELES >> Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said today he was the target of extortion and blackmail by the publisher of the National Enquirer, which he said threatened to publish revealing personal photos of him unless he stopped investigating how other private photos and messages were obtained by the tabloid.

LOS ANGELES >> Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said today he was the target of “extortion and blackmail” by the publisher of the National Enquirer, which he said threatened to publish revealing personal photos of him unless he stopped investigating how other private photos and messages were obtained by the tabloid.

Bezos, who is also owner of The Washington Post, detailed his interactions with American Media Inc. in an extraordinary blog post today on the Medium.com website.

After the tabloid published a story about his extramarital affair last month, Bezos ordered a team of private investigators to get to the bottom of how the Enquirer obtained lurid texts between the executive and former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. Since then, there’s been a public relations battle.

Earlier this week, the tabloid’s editor, Dylan Howard, emailed an attorney for Bezos’ longtime security consultant in order to describe photos the Enquirer “obtained during our newsgathering.” The photos include a “below the belt selfie” of Bezos, photos of him in tight boxer-briefs and wearing only a towel, and several revealing photos of Sanchez, according to the email Bezos released in his blog post.

According to emails Bezos posted, an attorney for American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, offered a deal Wednesday: The tabloid wouldn’t post the photos if Bezos and his investigators would release a public statement “affirming that they have no knowledge or basis” to suggest that the Enquirer’s coverage was “politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”

Last month, the Enquirer reported that Bezos sent “sleazy text messages and gushing love notes” to Sanchez, months before Bezos announced he was splitting up with his wife, MacKenzie. Reporters for the Enquirer followed Bezos and Sanchez “across five states and 40,000 miles” and “tailed them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates and ‘quality time’ in hidden love nests,” the tabloid said in its story. The Jan. 9 story carries the bylines of Howard and two reporters.

In his blog post Thursday, Bezos said he decided to publish the emails sent to his team “rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail,” despite the “personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.”

An attorney for American Media Inc. did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment today.</s>Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday accused the owner of the US newspaper National Enquirer of blackmailing him with threats of publishing "intimate photos" he sent to his mistress if he did not publicly announce that the tabloid's reporting on him was not politically motivated.

The National Enquirer, whose top boss David Pecker is close to Trump, last month reported Bezos had an extramarital affair with former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez.

"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," Bezos wrote in the blog post titled "No thank you, Mr. Pecker" published on Medium. "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out."

Read more: Is Trump's criticism of Amazon justified?

David Pecker is the CEO of American Media, Inc. (AMI), which publishes the National Enquirer.

Bezos and his wife announced in January that they were getting a divorce after 25 years of marriage, following a period of "loving exploration" and trial separation.

That same day, the National Enquirer advertised it was publishing alleged intimate text messages between Bezos and Sanchez.

Bezos then opened an investigation into the leak led by Gavin de Becker, a longtime security consultant and former appointee of US President Ronald Reagan.

In an interview with the Daily Beast, De Becker said that "strong leads point to political motives" and that he was interested in Lauren Sanchez's brother Michael, a vocal supporter of Trump with links to his inner circle, as a possible perpetrator.

Bezos, Amazon and the newspaper that he privately owns, the Washington Post, have all been targets of attacks on Twitter by Trump.

The Washington Post publishes many articles critical of Trump, and the president has said the paper acts as Amazon's "chief lobbyist."

Trump called Bezos "Jeff Bozo" in a tweet last month about the National Enquirer's coverage of his divorce.

"It's unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy," Bezos wrote. "President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets."

Bezos's blog mentioned AMI and Pecker's previous cooperation with Trump, including payments made to suppress negative stories, currently under investigation by federal prosecutors.

It also highlighted the publisher's links to Saudi Arabia — whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is accused of ordering the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

law/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)Every day, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. Sign up for the newsletter here.</s>Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, has launched his own investigation into how the National Enquirer got its story Getty Images

The parent company of the National Enquirer is investigating a claim by Jeff Bezos that the tabloid tried to blackmail him over the affair that ended his marriage.

The world’s richest man, who founded and runs Amazon, detailed the alleged extortion attempt yesterday in a post on the online platform Medium in which he underlined that his private ownership of The Washington Post had convinced “certain powerful people”, including President Trump, that he is “their enemy.”

The 2,000-word blog entry wove together an extraordinary mix of evidence and political innuendo, including threatening emails, details of compromising nude photographs, a mysterious connection to Saudi Arabia, White House intrigue and the Department of Justice’s investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s finances.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos publishes an online essay accusing American Media, Inc. owner David Pecker of "extortion and blackmail."