During the past weekend, the biggest story on the internet has been Jeff Bezos blog post on the extortion plot he has been facing by close associates to US President Donald Trump, and even maybe Saudi Arabia.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and CEO of the Washington Post, on Thursday, released a blog post revealing the story in which the billionaire found himself threatened in an extortion plot to have intimate photos of him published if he did not affirm previous reports released by the National Enquirer.
It all started after the National Enquirer, owned by the American Media Inc. had last month released an 11-page report on the world’s richest man’s affair with TV host and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez one day before announcing on Twitter that he and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, were getting divorced.
The Enquirer’s aim behind releasing such a report was questionable and got everyone wondering. Bezos, in the meantime, accused them of having politically-motivated purposes.
In his blog post, Bezos confirmed being compromised with intimate photos including a “below the belt selfie” that was illegally obtained. He also writes "Mr. Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions they’ve taken on behalf of the Saudi Government." This includes, according to the blog post, a private dinner hosted by the Trump White House in which Mr. Pecker was introduced to "a guest with important ties to the royals in Saudi Arabia. At the time, Mr. Pecker was pursuing business there while also hunting for financing for acquisitions…"
Bezos goes to observe that "it’s unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy" and later concludes with what could be an oblique reference to other parties: "Also, The Post’s essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles."
On Twitter, a thread by an Arab activist known for criticizing Saudi Arabia jumped on the story and in all probability explained the chances that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, could be related to this issue.
Tensions have been on the rise for the past few months between Saudi Arabia and Bezos, due to the Washington Post’s comprehensive coverage of the Jamal Khashoggi story. The Saudi journalist who was brutally murdered in his country’s consulate in Istanbul for expressing critical opinions to the Saudi government was a columnist for Bezo’s Washington Post.
MBS has been widely accused of involvement in Khashoggi’s killing despite the official denial, which raises doubts that he might be involved in actually helping the Enquirer in blackmailing Jeff Bezos.
The Saudi government was earlier accused of launching their electronic bots to attack Amazon and Souq.com, the Middle Eastern online market that was acquired by Amazon recently.
According to two people briefed on the matter and were not authorized to speak publicly, the US federal prosecutor has confirmed reviewing Bezos’ claim that he has been extorted. However it must be made clear that at present, all of this remains simply supposition.
