JOHANNESBURG â In one of the biggest global stories of the year so far, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has posted a lengthy blog outlining how a pro-Trump publisher of the National Enquirer has tried to blackmail him. Bezos, who announced his divorce from Mackenzie Bezos last month, published a bombshell of a blog post on Friday morning (South African time) detailing how the National Enquirer had obtained images of him having an affair. Bezos, though, alleges that the publisher of the National Enquirer, AMI, tried to blackmail him by getting the Washington Post (owned by Bezos) to tame the Post’s investigations into AMI. This battle is seen as a proxy war between Bezos and Trump. The US President has regularly bashed Bezos on Twitter, accusing the billionaire of using the Post to criticise Trump and even of Amazon not paying its fair share of taxes. – Gareth van Zyl
By Nick Turner and Olga Kharif
(Bloomberg) –Â A long-simmering feud between Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos took a bizarre turn after the multibillionaire accused allies of the president of brazenly trying to extort him.
In a surprising move that lit up social media feeds worldwide, the Amazon.com Inc. founder and chief executive officer published a blog post on Thursday, alleging that the publisher of the National Enquirer tried to blackmail him with embarrassing photos of Bezos and a woman who wasnât his wife – including sexually charged selfies.
The usually media-shy executive also published explicit email exchanges and descriptions of the photos, saying he would rather be embarrassed than extorted.
He also pointed to reports that the Enquirerâs publisher – American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker – has worked before on behalf of the president. Pecker, Bezos said in his post, ârecently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called âCatch and Killâ process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign.â
Trump in turn has frequently criticised Bezos and his newspaper, the Washington Post, for everything from taxes and shipping fees to printing âfake news.â On Twitter last month, Trump called the tech executive âJeff Bozo.â
âItâs unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy,â Bezos said in his post. âPresident Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets.â
Growing wealth
Representatives of American Media and the White House didnât immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ironically, becoming a Trump nemesis doesnât seem to have hurt the Amazon founderâs fortunes. Since Trumpâs election, no one has made more money than Bezos, who became the worldâs richest person thanks to a gold rush of e-commerce, web advertising and cloud computing.
Bezosâs wealth currently is valued at $133.9bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Trump has threatened Amazon with antitrust prosecution, but nothing has materialised. The president also pushed the US Postal Service to charge the e-commerce giant more for package delivery, based on his belief Amazon has a sweetheart deal. That led only to a Treasury Department report proposing that the post office increase rates. The report didnât provide explicit instructions on how much more the Postal Service should charge.
Divorce announcement
But it hasnât been smooth sailing for Bezos. Last month, he and his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie, announced plans to divorce. Within hours, the Enquirer published an expose on Bezosâs relationship with former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. The supermarket tabloidâs story included racy texts exchanged with Sanchez, calling her Bezosâs mistress.
Bezos, 55, hired investigators to find out how the texts were obtained and whether the story was politically motivated. The executive also said the Postâs coverage of Jamal Khashoggiâs murder –Â a columnist for the newspaper who was killed in Istanbul last year – âis undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles.
Bezosâs investigators werenât tied to the Washington Post, but he acknowledged that owning the newspaper is a âcomplexifier.â When Bezos aired a Super Bowl ad promoting the newspaper on Sunday, one of Trumpâs sons, Donald Trump Jr., called it an attempt for âundeserved credibility.â
âHow about report the news and not their leftist BS for a change,â he tweeted.
Copyright issue
Bezos has portrayed himself as a champion of journalism, but his clash with the Enquirer may put him on some shaky ground. In his exchange with a representative for AMI, he argued that the Enquirer wasnât allowed to publish the compromising images because they belonged to him and are protected by copyright laws.
AMI responded that it was allowed to publish the photos out of a public interest, since âmillions of Americans have a vested interest in the success of Amazon.â
Gawker made a similar argument when it published a sex tape featuring professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. The website lost its case and ultimately filed for bankruptcy.
In Bezosâs case, the question isnât clear-cut, said Mary Ellen Roy, a lawyer at Phelps Dunbar LLP in New Orleans specialising in First Amendment issues.
Any images taken in public are fair game, she said. But if the photos were captured in a private room, they will have to be proven newsworthy. âMr. Bezos is a businessman and not a political figure – itâs not necessarily newsworthy that he has a mistress,â she said.
âFighting backâ
In the Hulk Hogan case, the legal fight against Gawker was financed by billionaire Peter Thiel. He was outed as gay by a Gawker website in 2007 and told the New York Times he believed it was worth âfighting backâ against the business.
The Bezos-Enquirer tussle may be another instance where the legal questions are eclipsed by a broader battle.
âLetâs face it,â said Corynne McSherry, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. âHere we have another place where a copyright dispute is serving as a proxy for the real fight.â