Jeff Bezos, the founder of webshop Amazon, accuses the American gossip magazine National Enquire r and parent company American Media (AMI) of blackmail.
Bezos mentions in a blog post specifically the name of David Pecker, the chairman of AMI, that National Enquirer issues. The magazine previously published an article about Bezos’ alleged relationship with the TV personality Lauren Sanchez.
“Instead of capitulating for extortion and blackmail, I decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal costs and the embarrassment with which they threatened,” Bezos writes.
Bezos, currently estimated to be the richest man in the world, owns the Washington Post newspaper , which has written critical stories about President Donald Trump. Pecker in turn is a close ally of the president. Bezos states that he was looking for blackmail material about him to sabotage the investigation into Trump.
“We were approached with an offer, first verbally, then in writing, it was stated that they had text messages and photos of me and that they would be published if the research was not stopped.”
The publisher did not want to respond to the allegation of Bezos. The magazine examined Bezos in his own words because his wealth and position made him a newsworthy subject, according to an e-mail from a lawyer for AMI that Bezos revealed on Thursday.