After Claiming No Saudi Link, ‘National Enquirer’ Asked Justice Department About Registering As Saudi Agent


American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer tabloid, claimed that it received no help from anyone connected to Saudi Arabia when in March of 2018 it published an advertising-free, glossy, one-shot magazine titled The New Kingdom, praising Saudi Arabia and its ruler, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. But even as AMI denied any Saudi connection to the magazine, the company was admitting to the United States Department of Justice that it had asked an adviser to bin Salman to contribute to the magazine — and even read a draft of the magazine before it was published, according to a letter posted online by the Justice Department.

The letter was first revealed in a Wall Street Journal investigative report on Monday, which revealed that AMI and its CEO, close Donald Trump friend and supporter David Pecker, were so concerned about the Saudi involvement that they asked the DOJ if the company should register as an “agent” of the Saudi government.

The revelation of a close connection between the Enquirer and the bin Salman regime appears especially relevant in light of last week’s revelations that the tabloid obtained intimate photos and text messages sent by Amazon founder — and world’s richest person — Jeff Bezos, and attempted to use the highly personal material to get Bezos to back off an investigation of the tabloid, as the Inquisitr reported.

In a Medium essay last week, in which he exposed the Enquirer efforts to “blackmail” him, Bezos wrote that “the Saudi angle” appears to be of special concern to the Enquirer representatives.

Bezos is also the owner of the Washington Post, which continues to conduct its own investigation into the murder of its own columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, a murder believed by intelligence agencies and experts to have been ordered by bin Salman, as the Inquisitr reported.

After the revelation that an adviser to bin Salman has taken part in creating and editing the New Kingdom magazine, Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horowitz wrote on Twitter that AMI had lied to him about Saudi involvement in the magazine last year.

“AMI falsely told me and [NBC News reporter Josh KLederman]? in April that no such interaction occurred,” Horowitz wrote.

“American Media told the public last year that Saudi operatives had nothing to do with its production of a slick, pro-Saudi magazine. Then it turned around and told the Justice Department the opposite,” Journal reporter Julie Bykowicz, who co-wrote Monday’s report, posted on Twitter.

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