Jeff Bezos: National Enquirer tried to blackmail me with nude pics

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos dropped bombshell allegations against the National Enquirer on Thursday — accusing it of trying to blackmail him with nude selfies.

In a post on the website Medium, the billionaire alleges the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., threatened to publish a nude photo of him and other lewd images they’d obtained if he did not stop investigating the tabloid’s recent exposure of his affair and publicly declare that its reporting on it had not been “politically motivated.”

“These communications cement AMI’s long-earned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections, and ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism,” Bezos wrote in the lengthy missive.

“Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.”

The extraordinary public entreaty comes two days after the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, published a story exploring whether the Enquirer’s recent exposé on his affair with also-married TV anchor Lauren Sanchez — and subsequent split from his wife of 25 years — was a “political hit job.”

The magazine’s January scoop included pages of saucy texts and descriptions of racy photos exchanged between the illicit couple — and forced Bezos to publicly announce his divorce before the issue hit newsstands.

In the Washington Post report, Bezos’ “longtime private security consultant” Gavin de Becker said he has been looking into how the magazine got ahold of the private correspondence and has concluded that it was a “politically motivated” leak aimed at shaming the Post and Amazon owner.

AMI — which is run by David Pecker, a longtime pal of President Trump — has admitted to buying the rights to potentially embarrassing stories about the commander in chief in an effort to keep them from seeing the light of day.

Trump, meanwhile, has been a vocal critic of Bezos and his newspaper, which he often derides as the “Amazon Washington Post.”

And de Becker told the paper that he was exploring whether Sanchez’s brother Michael — an enthusiastic Trump supporter who the gumshoe says is an associate of presidential pals Roger Stone and Carter Page — was behind the leak.

Sanchez, Stone and Page all denied any involvement to the paper.

Bezos writes that he learned “several days ago” that Pecker was “apoplectic” about their investigation, and a few days later was approached verbally by the company, saying it “had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.”

He says his lawyers said no, and told AMI it would be a breach of copyright and the photos aren’t newsworthy.

Then, in an email Bezos says was sent to de Becker’s lawyer Tuesday, American Media Inc.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, allegedly noted the Washington Post piece was “poised to publish,” then outlined a number of images the magazine obtained during its “newsgathering” on his love life:

• Bezos’ face selfie at what appears to be a business meeting.
• Sanchez’s response — a photograph of her smoking a cigar in what appears to be a simulated oral sex scene.
• A shirtless Bezos holding his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring. He’s wearing either tight black cargo pants or shorts — and his semi-erect manhood is penetrating the zipper of said garment.
• A full-length body selfie of Bezos wearing just a pair of tight black boxer-briefs or trunks, with his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring.
• A selfie of Bezos fully clothed.
• A full-length scantily clad body shot with short trunks.
• A naked selfie in a bathroom — while wearing his wedding ring. Bezos is wearing nothing but a white towel — and the top of his pubic region can be seen.
• Sanchez wearing a plunging red neckline dress revealing her cleavage and a glimpse of her nether region.
• Sanchez wearing a two-piece red bikini with gold detail dress revealing her cleavage.

The email concludes with: “It would give no editor pleasure to send this email. I hope common sense can prevail — and quickly.”

Bezos says he wasn’t swayed.

“Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here,” he writes.

“If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?”

The following day, an email purportedly sent from AMI deputy general counsel Jon Fine — whose LinkedIn profile says he previously worked for Amazon for nine years — allegedly outlines AMI’s “proposed terms”:

1. “A full and complete mutual release of all claims that American Media, on the one hand, and Jeff Bezos and Gavin de Becker (the “Bezos Parties”), on the other, may have against each other,” is the first.
2. A public, mutually-agreed upon acknowledgment from the Bezos Parties, released through a mutually agreeable news outlet, affirming that they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces, and an agreement that they will cease referring to such a possibility.
3. AM agrees not to publish, distribute, share or describe unpublished texts and photos (the “Unpublished Materials”).
4. AM affirms that it undertook no electronic eavesdropping in connection with its reporting and has no knowledge of such conduct.
5. The agreement is completely confidential.
6. In the case of a breach of the agreement by one or more of the Bezos Parties, AM is released from its obligations under the agreement, and may publish the Unpublished Materials.

AMI did not immediately return a request for comment.