National Inquirer messes up again

[The Barbarian]

Rachel Maddow reports on Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post, accusing David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer of using stolen photos to extort him into ending his investigation of the Enquirer, and what that could mean for AMI's non-prosecution agreement with SDNY prosecutors.
Bezos: National Enquirer made extortion threat over investigation

Apparently, Bezos has documents to back up his accusation. This one could cause a lot of collateral damage. And not just for the Inquirer.

 

[The Barbarian]

He apparently has the blackmail missive from AMI, and made it public. And if they did this, the non-prosecution agreement they made with the FBI is void, and they can be criminally prosecuted for the crimes they admitted to in the Trump payoff affair.

Should be interesting.

 

[sfs]

He apparently has the blackmail missive from AMI, and made it public. And if they did this, the non-prosecution agreement they made with the FBI is void,

Doesn't that depend on whether their blackmail attempt was illegal or not? Most experts I've seen seem to think that it wasn't. (Scummy yes, illegal no.)

 

[The Barbarian]

In general, blackmail is defined as threatening to disclose something to harm another with the intent to coerce that other.

Apparently,

Bezos included an email from Howard to de Becker's lawyer. In the email, Howard wrote that he had evidence of 10 photographs of Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, including nude selfies. In his introduction to his descriptions of the photos, Howard appeared to make reference to an upcoming Post article that quoted de Becker.
"(W)ith 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."

Then, in an email to de Becker's attorney, AMI Deputy General Counsel Jon Fine referenced Bezos' investigation and the Post's reporting.
"It is our understanding that your client's representatives, including the Washington Post, continue to pursue and to disseminate these false and spurious allegations in a manner that is injurious to American Media and its executives," Fine said in the email. "Accordingly, we hereby demand that you cease and desist such defamatory conduct immediately. Any further dissemination of these false, vicious, speculative and unsubstantiated statements is done at your client's peril."
Bezos called the exchanges an "extortionate proposal."
Pecker has become a public name because of his association with President Donald Trump. Pecker was granted immunity in a federal investigation into former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. In exchange, Pecker agreed to provide federal prosecutors information on hush money deals.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says National Enquirer publisher tried to extort him - CNN

I don't think there's any doubt about what they were trying to do here. I'm pretty sure a jury wouldn't doubt it.

 

[The Barbarian]

Jeff Bezos’ decision to publicly call out American Media Inc. for an attempt this week at “extortion and blackmail” could have consequences far beyond what the publisher planned.

AMI, owned by David Pecker and best known as the publisher of tabloid The National Enquirer, only a few months ago signed a non-prosecution deal with the Department of Justice, agreeing that for its continued cooperation in an investigation into $275,000 that AMI paid to women with lascivious accusations involving Donald Trump during his presidential campaign in order to kill their stories, it will not be prosecuted for its own wrongdoing. AMI has so far admitted to making the payments at the behest of members of the Trump campaign, so the investigation revolves mainly around the question of whether such payments count as an illegal campaign contribution.

While the agreement includes some broad language from the DOJ and the U.S. attorneys involved in the investigation, taking place in New York, that protects AMI from prosecution, it also includes a section making clear that “any crimes” the publisher commits after signing the deal can negate the agreement entirely.

From the agreement, signed by AMI’s counsel in September: “It is understood that, should AMI commit any crimes subsequent to the date of signing 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 which this office has knowledge.”

A representative of the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in New York could not be reached for comment.

Under federal law, extortion is a crime and defined in Black’s law dictionary as “obtaining property from another induced by wrongful use of an actual or threatened force, violence or fear.” Blackmail is essentially synonymous with extortion, but its definition includes the threat “to expose disgraceful acts.” Both can be committed virtually, say, over email, a few of which Bezos made sure to include in his Thursday evening post to Medium. One legal quibble may be that federal extortion/blackmail typically requires a demand for some kind of property, but both generally explain a situation where one party uses threats to leverage another party for its own gain.

In its first statement on Bezos’ claims, AMI wrote that it “believes fervently that it acted lawfully” in “reporting” around him and his affair.

“Further, at the time of the recent allegations made by Mr. Bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him,” AMI added. “Nonetheless, in light of the nature of the allegations published by Mr. Bezos, the Board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. Upon completion of that investigation, the Board will take whatever appropriate action is necessary.”

But boy, does it seem like AMI tried to get some leverage over on Bezos. The Amazon founder and chief executive officer and, since 2015, owner of The Washington Post wrote on Medium that AMI over the last week attempted to use as a bargaining chip intimate photos of Bezos (who is married but now separated) and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez which they exchanged over text message. Bezos had hired a private investigator to try to find out how The Enquirer got access to those text messages, something that he claimed made Pecker “apoplectic.”

AMI, according to emails from the last week, wanted Bezos to publicly acknowledge in a “mutually agreeable news outlet” that The Washington Post had “no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces,” a reference to stories The Post has published on AMI’s Trump campaign payouts and the publisher’s possible link to the Saudi government (including last year’s publication of a strange pro-Saudi tabloid). AMI also asked Bezos for “an agreement that [Bezos parties] will cease referring” to the possibility that certain of AMI’s actions were indeed politically motivated.

In exchange for such an agreement and public concession, AMI said it would not “publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos” that it had collected in its “newsgathering and reporting.” Also, the entire agreement would have to be “completely confidential” and if Bezos went back on it at any time, AMI could do whatever it liked with the photos. Bezos noted, too, that AMI characterized the photos as something that could damage Amazon, because they would show shareholders his “poor business judgment.”

In simpler terms, AMI tired to use private photos of Bezos and veiled threats to his business in order to have him publicly state (and keep secret the motivation for his statement) that reporting around AMI’s politically motivated actions, even by his own publication, were simply wrong.

All of this is further muddied by the fact that Pecker is a well known friend of Trump’s, who has been openly hostile toward Bezos, Amazon and The Post.

Amazon shareholders don’t seem too worried — the company’s stock was down a reasonable 1 percent to $1,589 per share in pre-market trading and it still has a market capitalization of nearly $800 billion. But AMI and Pecker may need to start worrying about the agreement with the DOJ.
Jeff Bezos’ ‘Extortion’ Claim Could Affect AMI’s Immunity Deal

 

[Ringo84]

I'm interested to see where this goes. I definitely would mind seeing National Enquirer gone.
Ringo

 

[The Barbarian]

I'm interested to see where this goes. I definitely would mind seeing National Enquirer gone.
Ringo

Jeff Bezos could end up owning it. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

 

[Ringo84]

Poetic justice. I like it.
Ringo

 

[sfs]

I don't think there's any doubt about what they were trying to do here. I'm pretty sure a jury wouldn't doubt it.

The doubts I have seen expressed came from ex-prosecutors. I trust their judgment more than my own what would fly as a criminal offense.

 

[JCFantasy23]

I read about this the other day. Good for him. Blackmail is vile, and they were stupid to try to blackmail Bezos in the first place.