Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of “blackmail” after it threatened to publish intimate photographs sent by the billionaire to his mistress if he did not cease an investigation into the newspaper’s alleged links with Saudi Arabia. It comes after the tabloid last month reported Bezos was in a relationship with former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez -- having accessed private text messages. And in his Medium post, Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, pointed to AMI and David Pecker’s previous cooperation with Trump -- including payments made to suppress negative stories, currently under investigation by federal prosecutors. Bezos, his newspaper and Amazon are all regular targets of Trump’s signature Twitter tirades. Bezos also raised the publisher’s links to Saudi Arabia -- whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is accused of directing the murder of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Source: Hindustan Times February 08, 2019 03:03 UTC