The sordid and complex story of Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos’s run-in with the National Enquirer is unusual in its details, but striking in one respect: It is yet another instance in which the Enquirer has been accused of unsavory tactics in pursuit of stories a number of times in recent years.
The Enquirer and other publications owned by its parent company, American Media LLC, have faced allegations of unethical and abusive behavior from actor Terry Crews, associates of former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) and for its involvement in a scheme to protect the film producer Harvey Weinstein from accusations of sexual assault.
Although the tabloid’s revelation of Edwards’s affair with a campaign staffer in 2007 is often lauded as its finest feat of reporting, American Media’s tactics allegedly had a darker underside.
Journalist Ronan Farrow poses at the 25th Annual ELLE Women in Hollywood Celebration in October 2018. Credit: Chris Pizzello, Invision, AP
Ronan Farrow said Thursday that he and “at least one other prominent journalist” who had reported on the National Enquirer and President Trump received blackmail threats from the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., over their work.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday published a lengthy Medium post alleging that the National Enquirer threatened to publish nude photos of him and Lauren Sanchez, a journalist with whom he was alleged to have had an affair.
Details: Bezos notes that David Pecker, the owner of the National Enquirer and its parent company AMI, is suspected of using the publication for political purposes. After the National Enquirer published intimate texts between Bezos and Sanchez, Bezos launched an investigation into the magazine’s motives, including actions it has taken on behalf of the Trump administration and the Saudi government. This prompted an email from AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard — which Bezos posted — in which Howard described lewd photos of Bezos that the Enquirer had allegedly obtained during the course of its reporting.
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Subsequent emails show the terms proposed by an attorney for the Enquirer: The magazine will agree not to publish texts or photos from Bezos in exchange for a public acknowledgement, “released through a mutually-agreeable news outlet,” that AMI’s coverage is “not influenced by political forces.”
The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the ShareBlue.com website August 30, 2018:
Being in bed with Trump has not been good for business at the National Enquirer.
Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP
It turns out the National Enquirer’s decision to become a work for Trump, attacking his enemies and trying to silence women from his past, isn’t paying off financially.
In fact, the Associated Press reports, “The Enquirer’s privately held parent company, American Media Inc., lost $72 million for the year ending in March.”
The collapse comes “despite AMI chairman David Pecker’s claims that the Enquirer’s heavy focus on Trump sells magazines,” according to AP.
The following article by Melanie Schmitz was posted on the ThinkProgress.org website August 30, 2018:
The president was reportedly weighing the idea of buying American Media Inc.’s entire library of negative stories on him.
President Trump Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
President Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, discussed a plan to prevent the National Enquirer’s parent company from publishing a trove of negative news items about Trump spanning decades, according to a new report from the New York Times.
Just ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Trump and Cohen discussed buying the rights to the story of a woman who claimed to have had an affair with him years earlier, to the tune of $150,000. The woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, had previously been paid that amount by American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, in a practice known as “catch-and-kill” — essentially, AMI purchased and buried her story, effectively silencing her.
The conversation in which Trump discussed purchasing McDougal’s story from AMI was since leaked to CNN in the form of an audio tape recorded by Cohen himself. However, a new report by The New York Times claims Trump had plans to buy not just McDougal’s story, but also the Enquirer’s entire archive of negative stories about him.
Alisyn Camerota: “Sources Tell CNN, President Trump’s Longtime Personal Attorney Michael Cohen Has Accepted The Fact That He Is Likely Going To Prison.” ALISYN CAMEROTA: “Sources tell CNN, President Trump’s long time personal attorney Michael Cohen has accepted the fact that he is likely going to prison. Sources tell CNN, He took a plea deal to protect his family from more financial and legal troubles.” [New Day, CNN, 8/30/18; Video]
Jeffery Toobin: “Trump Was Also A Source For Pecker, Not Just About Himself, But About Other Celebrities. And This Story Suggests That The Inquirer Knew A Lot About His Personal Life, And Trump Himself Was Very Concerned About Keeping Private.” JEFFERY TOOBIN: “Pecker’s American media published an entire magazine that was just about the Trump properties. It was something that you got in your hotel room when you checked into a trump property. It gives you an idea of how close they were. He was, Trump was also a source for Pecker, not just about himself, but about other celebrities. And this story suggests that the inquirer knew a lot about his personal life, and trump himself was very concerned about keeping private.” [New Day, CNN, 8/30/18; Video]
Alisyn Camerota “We Now Know More About Why The National Enquirer Needed A Safe. There Was Apparently A Lot Of Dirt The National Enquirer Had Been Gathering On Donald Trump Since The 1980’s.” ALISYN CAMEROTA : “We now know more about why the National enquirer needed a safe. There was apparently a lot of dirt the National enquirer had been gathering on Donald Trump since the 1980’s. This is new reporting from the New York Times Jim Rutenberg and Maggie Habberman, and that Michael Cohen and then candidate Donald Trump had talked about buying up all of it so nothing leaked out slowly and incrementally.” [New Day, CNN, 8/30/18; Video]
The following article by Gabriel Sherman was posted on the Vanity Fair website August 27, 2018:
With his closest allies defecting, the president increasingly trusts only his instincts. He “got joy” from stripping former C.I.A. director John Brennan’s security clearance. And after betrayals by Allen Weisselberg and David Pecker, a former White House official says, Trump “spent the weekend calling people and screaming.”
After Michael Cohen’s plea deal last week, Donald Trump spiraled out of control, firing wildly in all directions. He railed against “flippers” in a rambling Fox & Friends interview, and lashed out on Twitter at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department, and Robert Mueller. In the wake of his outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in. Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trump’s New York real-estate friends including Tom Barrack,Richard LeFrak, and Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an “intervention” last week. “It was supposed to be a war council,” one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said. “You know Trump—he hates being lectured to,” the source added. (Spokespeople for LeFrak and Lorber say they have no knowledge of a meeting. A spokesperson for Barrack didn’t comment.) Continue reading ““Trump is nuts. This time really feels different”: Trump rejects “war council” intervention, goes it alone”
The following article by Cory Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet.org website August 23, 2018:
It was revealed earlier in the day that the owner of the magazine’s parent company has accepted immunity from prosecutors.
Donald Trump, Jr., Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, David Pecker and Eric Trump. Credit: Twitter
President Donald Trump’s week started out badly, and it’s ending even worse.
On Friday morning, multiple reports found that David Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc. — which owns the National Enquirer — has been offered an immunity deal by prosecutors. This news looks particularly bad for the president because Pecker and his company were implicated in the guilty plea of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, which was accepted in court on Tuesday. Many speculated that the main reason for Pecker’s testimony would be to obtain testimony against Trump, who was also implicated in Cohen’s plea with regard to campaign finance violations. Continue reading “National Enquirer Had a Safe with a Treasure Trove of Dirt on Trump that It Kept Hidden During the Campaign: Report”
The following article by Megan Keller was posted on the Hill website August 23, 2018:
Prosecutors reportedly granted immunity to David Pecker, the CEO of the company that publishes National Enquirer, as part of their investigation into President Trump‘s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen.
Pecker met with the prosecution to discuss Cohen’s involvement in Trump’s hush-money deals with women leading up to the 2016 presidential election, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Pecker has emerged as a central figure in the scandal involving the payments. CNN last month released audio of Trump and Cohen discussing payment to a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, in which Cohen apparently references Pecker, telling Trump that he needs “to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David.”
The following article by Ronan Farrow was posted on the New Yorker website February 16, 2018:
One woman’s account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.
At right, from the top, David Pecker, the chairman of American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer; Karen McDougal, a former Playmate of the Year; Donald Trump; and Dylan Howard, A.M.I.’s chief content officer.Illustration by Oliver Munday; Source Photographs: Jesse Grant / WireImage / Getty (McDougal); Mark Peterson / Redux for The New Yorker (Pecker); Jamie Squire / Getty (Trump); Lucas Jackson / Reuters (Howard)
In June, 2006, Donald Trump taped an episode of his reality-television show, “The Apprentice,” at the Playboy Mansion, in Los Angeles. Hugh Hefner, Playboy’s publisher, threw a pool party for the show’s contestants with dozens of current and former Playmates, including Karen McDougal, a slim brunette who had been named Playmate of the Year, eight years earlier. In 2001, the magazine’s readers voted her runner-up for “Playmate of the ’90s,” behind Pamela Anderson. At the time of the party, Trump had been married to the Slovenian model Melania Knauss for less than two years; their son, Barron, was a few months old. Trump seemed uninhibited by his new family obligations. McDougal later wrote that Trump “immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me – telling me how beautiful I was, etc. It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, ‘Wow, he was all over you – I think you could be his next wife.’
Trump and McDougal began an affair, which McDougal later memorialized in an eight-page, handwritten document provided to The New Yorker by John Crawford, a friend of McDougal’s. When I showed McDougal the document, she expressed surprise that I had obtained it but confirmed that the handwriting was her own. Continue reading “Donald Trump, a Playboy Model and a System for Concealing Infidelity”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday published a 
After Michael Cohen’s plea deal last week, 
