Bezos accuses tabloid run by Trump ally of ‘blackmail’

The richest man on earth accused the nation’s leading supermarket tabloid publisher of “extortion and blackmail” on Thursday, laying out a theory that brought together international intrigue, White House politics, nude photos and amorous text messages. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of the Washington Post, made his accusations against American Media Inc (AMI), the firm behind the National Enquirer, in a lengthy post on the online platform Medium.

Last month, the Enquirer published an expose of Bezos’ extramarital affair with Lauren Sanchez, a former TV host. The headline of Bezos’ post — “No thank you, Mr. Pecker” — targeted David Pecker, the head of the tabloid company. He accused AMI of threatening to publish graphic photos of Bezos if he did not publicly affirm that the Enquirer’s reporting on his affair was not motivated by political concerns. “Well, that got my attention,” Bezos wrote. “But not in the way they likely hoped.”


The inciting event in this battle of American titans was the January 28 edition of the Enquirer, which hit supermarket racks on January 10, one day after Bezos and his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie, announced that they would be getting a divorce. The tabloid devoted 11 pages to the story of Bezos’ affair with Sanchez. Tech executives are not the usual subjects of Enquirer covers, and the story set off speculation in Washington and media circles that the tabloid’s aggressive coverage of Bezos was tied to the closeness of Pecker and the White House. That alliance came fully to light last year in the legal drama involving hush payments to women alleging affairs with Trump. Pecker had helped orchestrate “catch and kill” deals involving two women who alleged affairs with Trump.

After the Enquirer made his private life public, Bezos sprang into action, starting his own investigation of the tabloid’s motives and how it had come to possess his texts. Leading the investigation was Gavin de Becker, Bezos’ longtime security chief, whom 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 Trump, who has labelled the newspaper that Bezos purchased in 2013 as “The Amazon Post” and recently called him “Jeff Bozo” in a tweet.

AMI made the next move, offering Bezos an offer that it wrongly assumed he could not refuse. And if he did say no? 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 wellknown practice of blackmail, political favours, political attacks and corruption,” Bezos wrote. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.” Amazon declined to comment. AMI did not reply to a request for comment.

In his post, Bezos also appeared to imply that the tabloid company was doing the bidding of Saudi Arabia, quoting from a NYT report last year: “After Mr. Trump became president, he rewarded Mr. Pecker’s loyalty with a White House dinner to which the media executive brought a guest with important ties to the royals in Saudi Arabia. At the time, Mr. Pecker was pursuing business there while also hunting for financing for acquisitions.” The Post has been reporting on intelligence assessments that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the grisly murder of the Saudi dissident — and Post global opinion contributor — Jamal Khashoggi.