Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has gone public a couple of brazen try at blackmail by the National Enquirer, which threatened to leak nude pictures of him and his mistress in retaliation for adverse protection within the Washington Post.
On Thursday, Bezos posted a pair of letters he obtained from Enquirer mum or dad firm AMI, threatening to leak racy pictures of the Amazon tycoon (and WaPo proprietor) and his lover Lauren Sanchez if he didn’t publish a press release to the impact that Post reporters “haven’t any information or foundation for suggesting that AMI’s protection was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”
Last month, Bezos introduced he was divorcing his spouse of 25 years, MacKenzie, after his affair with Lauren Sanchez grew to become public.
“In addition to the ‘below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’ — The Enquirer obtained an additional 9 photos,” mentioned one e-mail Bezos obtained after a verbal warning from an AMI worker. The author – who signed this obvious extortion try with the title Dylan Howard – warned Bezos that AMI additionally had “{a photograph} of [Sanchez] smoking a cigar in what seems to be a simulated oral intercourse scene,” a shirtless and semi-aroused Bezos, a full-body Bezos selfie, a nude toilet selfie through which “the highest of his pubic area might be seen,” a cleavage-baring shot of Sanchez together with “a glimpse of her nether area,” and a bikini shot of Sanchez with compulsory cleavage.
“It would give no editor pleasure to ship this e-mail. I hope widespread sense can prevail — and shortly,” Howard wrote.
Bezos solely half-jokingly known as the e-mail an “provide I couldn’t refuse.” He selected to publish the emails of their entirety as an alternative.
“Numerous folks” reportedly contacted Bezos’s investigators with comparable tales of intimidation, acknowledging that they have been compelled to capitulate – missing the billions that may cushion Bezos if the pictures have been to come back out. Bezos mentioned that in his case, the extortion was compounded by a menace to “maintain the pictures readily available and publish them sooner or later if we ever deviate from” the road that AMI’s protection was not politically motivated.
Bezos was blindsided final month when the Enquirer leaked textual content messages between him and his mistress, hours after the breakup of the tycoon’s marriage. Within every week after bankrolling an investigation into how the tabloid had obtained the “intimate texts,” he claims he realized “political motives” have been the rationale for the leak – that AMI head David Pecker resented the Post’s ongoing criticism of President Donald Trump’s administration and his personal firm’s cozy relationship with the Saudi royal household.
Clearly overestimating Bezos’ personal involvement within the day-to-day working of the paper, Pecker took his revenge on the person on the prime. “Mr. Pecker is ‘apoplectic’ about our investigation,” and, specifically “the Saudi angle,” Bezos says he heard from one other AMI worker.
Alleged blackmail marketing campaign or not, Bezos insisted he had no regrets over shopping for the Washington Post.