Jeff Bezos published a statement on his blog today (bottom link) that the National Enquirer had threatened to publish nude photos of himself and another woman to keep the Washington Post from running a negative story about the National Enquirer.
(Note: That bottom link has descriptions of the nude photos, so content alert.)
Here’s the text from Bezo’s blog that where the Enquirer made its demand for the Post not to publish:
However, in the interests of expediating this situation, and with The Washington Post poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of The National Enquirer’s initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering.
Bezos refused to give in.
“Well, that [the email] 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?,” Bezos writes. “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.’”
Now what’s really interesting here is that AMI’s little shenanigans could cost them dearly with SDNY. Their non-prosecution agreement demands they be good boys or else.
From lawandcrime.com:
But here’s the thing, the non-prosecution agreement also says that “it is understood […] should AMI commit any crimes subsequent to the date of signing of this Agreement, or should the Government determine that AMI or its representatives have knowingly given false, incomplete, or misleading testimony or information, or should AMI otherwise violate any provision of this Agreement, AMI shall thereafter be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of this Office has knowledge, including perjury and obstruction of justice.”
SDNY a) reserved the right to tear up the deal and b) said that any testimony “shall be admissible in evidence in any criminal proceeding brought against AMI.”
Bezos knows he has AMI over a barrel.
Go get 'em, Jeff.
