Federal Prosecutors Looking At Bezos’ Extortion Claim, ‘New York Times’ Reports

Per the Inquisitr, last week Jeff Bezos borrowed a page from Alexander Hamilton’s Reynolds Pamphlet when he released a blog post in which he claimed that American Media, Inc. (AMI) — the parent company of the National Enquirer — had attempted to blackmail him with additional incriminating photos if Bezos didn’t drop an internal investigation into the leaking of text messages. Bezos also implied that there was a connection with Saudi Arabia in American Media’s response. In the post, published to Medium, Bezos also published letters he had received from American Media’s attorneys — letters with detailed descriptions of the photos they were threatening to release.

Now, it appears, prosecutors are paying attention to Bezos’ claim.

The New York Times reported Monday that federal prosecutors are “reviewing” Bezos’ story, and that those prosecutors are planning to meet with Bezos’ representatives to discuss the matter.

If it’s determined that the company violated the law, it would jeopardize American Media’s immunity agreement with the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. The immunity agreement in question was reached after the company admitted that it had paid hush money to two women, including Stormy Daniels, who had claimed they had affairs with President Trump. That agreement states that American Media’s immunity would be voided if they’re found to have committed another crime.

It’s not clear which prosecutors are looking into the matter. It could be the Justice Department, the Southern District, or perhaps a prosecutor’s office in Florida, where American Media is based. American Media also announced that it has launched an internal investigation into the letter to Bezos.

The report follows another on Sunday, per the Inquisitr, when the Daily Beast reported that the source for the texts published in the National Enquirer‘s original report was in fact Michael Sanchez, the brother of Bezos’ mistress Lauren Sanchez. While journalistic outlets don’t typically reveal their unnamed sources, the Daily Beast attributed the information to “multiple sources inside of AMI.” An AMI attorney said in an interview over the weekend that the source was “a reliable source that had given information to the National Enquirer for seven years prior to this story.”

EXCLUSIVE: Mistress brother leaked Jeff Bezos’ racy texts to the National Enquirer, sources tell @lachlan https://t.co/0DNo1fjA3P

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) February 11, 2019

Michael Sanchez being the leaker implies that he had taken incriminating photos from his own sister’s phone, and leaked them to the press.

Bezos had implied in the original blog post that a government agency was involved in the original leak.

Michael Sanchez is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump. Bezos, owner of both Amazon and the Washington Post, is a frequent target of the president’s ire.