A Look Down the National Enquirer-Trump-Saudi Rathole and the Bezos Extortion Attempt

The attempt by representatives of the National Enquirer to extort billionaire Jeff Bezo’s silence is, in my opinion, just the tip of something much bigger. The two most obvious scenarios involve President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Let me layout a trail of breadcrumbs for you to follow.

On Thursday, the wealthiest man in the world. Jeff Bezos--who owns a big part of Amazon and all of the Washington Post--published a personal account with supporting documents alleging an extortion attempt by AMI, owner of the National Enquirer, and executive David Pecker.

In January, the tabloid published intimate "sexts" with a woman alleged to be Bezo’s mistress. Needless to say, the woman the mogul was married to wasn’t amused. A divorce announcement preceded the tabloid hitting newsstands by just a couple of hours.

The President of the United States, who thinks the Washington Post is out to get him, was amused.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1084627451983073280

A private security firm was hired by Bezos to determine just how data from his phone managed to end up in the Enquirer. Given the President’s frequent rants about the Washington Post and that paper’s crusade to find the murderer of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, looking into the possibility of a political connection seemed prudent.  

The Enquirer contacted Bezos and threatened to publish more revealing info taken from his phone, including a proverbial dick pic, unless the investigation was halted.

They were stupid enough to put their demands into writing, not just once, but twice.

From Bezos’ post on Medium.com (Emphasis mine):

Well, that got my attention. But not in the way they likely hoped. 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? (On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.)

In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we “have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”

If we do not agree to affirmatively publicize that specific lie, they say they’ll publish the photos, and quickly. And there’s an associated threat: They’ll keep the photos on hand and publish them in the future if we ever deviate from that lie.

American Media released a statement the next morning saying it believed it acted lawfully in reporting the story of Bezos and his extramarital affair, but that it will investigate the CEO’s blackmail and extortion claims. Part of the crack investigative team includes David Pecker.

There is perhaps another investigation Pecker and crew need to be worried about.

Via the Associated Press:

Federal prosecutors in New York are probing whether the National Enquirer’s parent company violated a cooperation agreement in its handling of the story regarding Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Bezos claims American Media Inc. threatened to publish intimate photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the tabloid obtained his private exchanges with his mistress.

Two people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press that prosecutors are looking at whether an email exchange Bezos published shows AMI violated an agreement it struck to avoid prosecution for alleged campaign finance violations. The people were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The agreement requires AMI commit no crimes for three years. AMI did not respond to requests for comment.

It turns out that Bezos may not have been the only one threatened by the National Enquirer.

https://twitter.com/RonanFarrow/status/1093690150448758784

From Raw Story:

Farrow published a story in April about the Enquirer‘s “catch and kill” practice,” which involves paying off sources and then burying the stories, that helped Trump during his 2016 campaign.

Former Associated Press editor Ted Bridis also tweeted that the media organization had been warned that AMI, the Enquirer’s publisher, hired private investigators to target AP reporters looking into their efforts to help Trump, although he never saw evidence this took place.

The Daily Beast reported that attorneys for AMI aggressively responded, including unspecified threats, to two stories published last week about Bezos and the Enquirer.

The Saudi Connections

The New York Times published a story on Thursday based on recently uncovered electronic intercepts saying Muhammed bin Salman (MBS) was angered about dissident Adnan Khashoggi writing for the Washington Post, saying he'd personally put "a bullet" in the U.S.-based journalist

In October 2018, Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents inside the Turkish embassy in Istanbul. The Post vowed to use all of the paper's assets to expose the truth, including MBS's role, until "meaningful action is taken."

***

Side note: President Donald Trump failed to meet a Congressional deadline today (Friday) requiring the White House to determine whether Saudi Arabia's crown prince is personally responsible for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"The President maintains his discretion to decline to act on congressional committee requests when appropriate," a senior administration official told CNN.

***

AMI, publisher of the National Enquirer, and its owner David Pecker, played a critical role in Donald Trump's rise to the White House, snuffing out would-be scandals and keeping disparaging files in a safe.

The tabloid sent copies of its stories about Donald Trump to his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, before they were published for his approval.

The National Enquirer’s parent company has acknowledged paying hush money to a woman who alleged an affair with Donald Trump to “suppress the woman’s story” and “prevent it from influencing the election.

After Michael Cohen’s fall from grace, AMI’s Pecker got cozy with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, hoping to get a line on Saudi backing to buy Time Magazine.

https://twitter.com/nathansnewman/status/1093876553606418432

Now, we’ll go back to the timeline in Bezos post:

Several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is “apoplectic” about our investigation. For reasons still to be better understood, the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve.

A few days after hearing about Mr. Pecker’s apoplexy, we were approached, verbally at first, with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.

Was Pecker's panic about Bezos' investigation connected to the inference of Saudi involvement? The extortion attempt seems like a bad idea in light of the fact the company had just promised the Justice Department to refrain from criminal activity.

Perhaps it’s come down to “sources and methods,” the bane of the spying business when it comes to disclosing information.

If, as Bezos’ private investigator maintains, the data acquired by the National Enquirer wasn’t hacked, but instead intercepted by a “foreign intelligence agency,” then a New York Times story about the Saudis taking remote control over the cell phone of a Saudi dissident close to the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi is of interest.

A lawsuit named an Israeli software company making spyware, known as Pegasus, as the means by which the phone was compromised.

The spyware allows its customers to secretly listen to calls, record keystrokes, read messages, and track internet history on a targeted phone. It also enables customers to use a phone’s microphone and camera as surveillance devices…

...Because of those sweepingly invasive capabilities, Israel classifies the spyware as a weapon. The company must obtain approval from the Defense Ministry for its sale to foreign governments. Saudi Arabia paid $55 million last year for its use, according to Israeli news reports.

Mr. Abdulaziz, the plaintiff of the new lawsuit, is a 27-year-old Saudi who sought asylum in Canada and lives in Montreal. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings, he had become popular among Saudis for online videos and social media commentary criticizing the rulers of the kingdom for their authoritarianism. The consulting firm McKinsey & Company identified him as an influential driver of dissent on social media.  

Over the last two months, he has also gained international attention because of his friendship and collaboration with Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi exile living in Virginia who wrote columns for The Washington Post.

This is where the story stands at this point: lots of smoke, and it’s probable there is much more to be said.

Thanks to Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch for his twitterstorm that led me down this rathole...