Bezos fires back at National Enquirer

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a blog post Thursday claimed to be the target of extortion and blackmail by the publisher of the National Enquirer. Bezos, 55, said the tabloid threatened to publish explicit personal photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained texts between him and his mistress. The National Enquirer on Jan. 9 published a story about Bezos and his affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez, who is married. That same day, Bezos announced on Twitter that he and his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Bezos, were planning to divorce. Bezos said he hired a team of investigators soon after the story broke to find out how the tabloid obtained his text messages to Sanchez.

In his Thursday post on the Medium blog site, Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, said the Enquirer offered him a formal deal on Wednesday in which the paper would not publish revealing photos of Bezos and Sanchez if his investigators released a public statement saying they did not believe the Enquirer coverage was politically motivated. His investigators had suggested the tabloid coverage of the affair was driven by dirty politics. David Pecker, the CEO of American Media, which owns the Enquirer, is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, who has been critical of Bezos and The Washington Post’s coverage of the White House. Bezos said he decided to publish the letter online, despite the “personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.”