A lawyer for American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker on Sunday denied that the National Enquirer, an AMI property, blackmailed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos by threatening to release explicit photos he shared during an extramarital affair.
“It absolutely is not extortion and not blackmail,” Pecker attorney Elkan Abramowitz told ABC “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos. Abramowitz also denied that the story was motivated by Pecker’s connections to President Donald Trump.
BREAKING: Elkan Abramowitz, the attorney representing AMI CEO David Pecker, responds to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s extortion and blackmail allegations exclusively on @ThisWeekABC: "It absolutely is not extortion and not blackmail" https://t.co/zciE3kUO5l pic.twitter.com/RqXsKzjULY
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 10, 2019
In a recent Medium post, Bezos said the Enquirer had threatened to release revealing photos he’d shared with news anchor and pilot Lauren Sanchez, with whom he’d had an affair, unless he stopped an investigation into leaked messages obtained by the tabloid and made a “specific false public statement to the press that we ‘have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.'”
Abramowitz on Sunday characterized the emails Bezos published on Medium as a straightforward offer: “Both Bezos and AMI had interests in resolving their differences.”
“That is not extortion because all that AMI wanted was the truth,” he added later.
EXCLUSIVE: Elkan Abramowitz, attorney representing AMI CEO David Pecker, says story on Jeff Bezos was a "usual story" and not "a political hatchet job."
"AMI did not want to have the libel against them that this was inspired by the White House." https://t.co/dcuXqRscEC pic.twitter.com/qNNNk5mnHe
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 10, 2019
Bezos investigator Gavin de Becker earlier this week told the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, that he thought a “government entity might have gotten ahold of [Bezos’] text messages,” in Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia’s words.
Abramowitz said the magazine’s source for the photos was “well-known to both Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez” and called it “libel” to imply the story was “inspired” by the White House or Saudi Arabia.
The Enquirer’s source, the lawyer said, “was not the White House, it was not Saudi Arabia,” but rather “a reliable source that had given information to the National Enquirer for seven years prior to this story. It was a source that was well-known to both Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez.”
Abramowitz refused to say whether the source was Sanchez’s Trump-supporting brother, Michael Sanchez.
“It’s absolutely not a crime to ask somebody to simply tell that truth,” he said separately, characterizing the Enquirer emails to Bezos that Bezos made public. “Tell the truth that this was not politically motivated and we will print no more stories about it.”
AMI — and federal prosecutors — are looking into the matter as well.
The Enquirer wouldn’t know the truth if it were delivered by the replicant Pope sent here from Mars they featured in last week’s issue.
It’s Sunday morning in America. Tell it!
Why would anyone waste time interviewing an attorney who represents a possibly guilty party? What is expected to be gained from it? I will save everyone a lot of air time and reading time: The attorney will claim the client is innocent of all charges. We now return you to your lives.
So, it is clear to me now that the positions and words you are forced to adopt by proxy of threats are now the “truths” we all hold so dear. Thank you AMI for clearing that one up for me.
OT: The diminished tax refund story is going to be HUGE! Even if people are paying less, (smaller overall tax burden), they are pissed that they get no refund, or a smaller one this year.
It may be that witholdings changed so people saw the effects of tax changes right away, before the mid terms, or may be just coincidence that it worked out that way. But people who get refunds love them, depend on them, and they are pissed that they are not getting one.
Worse, people who have never experienced owing the IRS are now owing the IRS, and they don’t have the cash.
Behavioral Economics might be a bigger blow to DJT than being a racist traitor.
Edit: I wonder if the GOP can swing this to their advantage, with stategic blame, or call for cuts. Dunno, but this will get loud.