Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Pens Blog Post Alleging Blackmail By National Enquirer's Parent Company

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (image via Flickr/JD Lasica)

Last night, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos took to Medium to tell the world that the parent company for the National Enquirer, American Media Inc.,  had threatened to blackmail him by releasing embarrassing photos and text messages of Bezos.

Not only did he address the alleged threat head on, he published the threatening emails in full.

Just a taste from Bezos via Medium:

Something unusual happened to me yesterday. Actually, for me it wasn’t just unusual — it was a first. I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing. Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.

Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can? (On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.)

In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the 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.”

One of the photos listed in the threats is described as “a shirtless Mr. Bezos holding his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring."

It goes on to mention that the wealthiest man in the world is "wearing either tight black cargo pants or shorts — and his semi-erect manhood is penetrating the zipper of said garment.”

AMI says it 'acted lawfully' but will investigate the issue.

Right.

Of course, AMI has admitted to paying one of Donald Trump's mistresses for her story in a 'catch and kill' move to make sure it never saw the light of day as the CEO of AMI, David Pecker, is a longtime fan of the Donald who hates Bezos.

Go read the entire post by Bezos. It's worth the read.

Plumber Hooks Up With Closeted Gay Man Then Attempts Blackmail Him

(stock photo - not the guilty perp in the story below)

We all know that well-worn porn scenario of the hunky plumber who shows up to fix a ‘leaky faucet’ and then, badda-bing-badda-boom!

A plumber in the UK took that idea and flipped the script a bit by hooking up with a closeted, married gay man and then tried to extort blackmail to keep his secret.

Benjamin Muskett, a 31-year-old in Chester England, pleaded guilty in court to attempting to blackmail a married man over a sexual tryst in the country.

Muskett apparently spent months corresponding with his victim, who was only identified as ‘Mr. X’ in court papers, via a gay hookup site.

The two finally agreed to meet on Sunday, September 2.

According to the Chester Standard, Muskett got into the victim’s car, and after a brief conversation agreed to head out to the country for privacy.

After parking so that they could see any approaching cars, Muskett allowed Mr. X to perform “a sex act” on him in the car.

Along the way there was apparently a bit of pretending to fix a flat tire. Now, there’s a euphemism for you.

Once the deed was done, they headed back to town and parted company.

But then, Muskett contacted Mr. X and told him he’d recorded the sexcapade and wanted £5,000 in cash to keep the closeted man’s secret.

Frightened his friends and family would find out about the meet up, Mr. X contacted the police.

When the police arrested Muskett he admitted he’d never actually recorded the encounter. Yep, it was just a bluff.

Muskett eventually told police he has a female partner and children and he needed money to support them.

The judge, who called the crime “particularly vicious because it was planned and deliberate,” sentenced Muskett to 3 years in prison.

(h/t Chester Standard)

Morning Joe Hosts Allege White House Offered To "Spike" National Enquirer Story For Apology

In the aftermath of President Trump's "bleeding badly from a face lift" tweet about MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, she and fiancé Joe Scarborough both penned an op-ed for the Washington Post and spoke on the air this morning about an alleged offer from the White House.

According to the two MSNBC hosts, if the pair would call and apologize to Donald Trump for their less-than-glowing coverage over the past several months, Trump would call his good buddy who owns the National Enquirer and get a negative story about the hosts "spiked."

NY Magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman says he has the inside scoop:

According to three sources familiar with the private conversations, what happened was this: After the inauguration, Morning Joe’s coverage of Trump turned sharply negative. “This presidency is fake and failed,” Brzezinski said on March 6, for example. Around this time, Scarborough and Brzezinski found out the Enquirer was preparing a story about their affair. While Scarborough and Brzezinski’s relationship had been gossiped about in media circles for some time, it was not yet public, and the tabloid was going to report that they had left their spouses to be together.

In mid-April, Scarborough texted with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner about the pending Enquirer story. Kushner told Scarborough that he would need to personally apologize to Trump in exchange for getting Enquirer owner David Pecker to stop the story.

The editor of the National Enquirer denies any knowledge of conversations between the White House and the Morning Joe hosts.

Here's the two hosts explaining on the air this morning:

This is a chilling story. https://t.co/HYJgBnajOy via @Morning_Joe https://t.co/6UCEHzfOET

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 30, 2017

Of course, Scarborough and Brzezinski knew exactly what they were doing in order to bait the Donald. He quickly dispatched this tweet upon watching the show this morning.

Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months. https://t.co/TZWiElo6Gs

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 30, 2017

Why do you keep lying about things that are so easily disproven? What is wrong with you? https://t.co/aAoUj5HYZS

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 30, 2017

Legal expert Laurence Tribe chimed in on the alleged "blackmail:"

If WH told @morningmika & @JoeNBC the Nat'l Enquirer wd smear them unless they laid off T on their show, that wd be a crime per 18 USC 872

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 30, 2017

Russia Has “Compromising Personal And Financial” Information On Trump According To US Intel

President-elect Donald Trump (L), Russian President Putin (R)

No wonder he wouldn't publicly criticize the Russian Government or Putin.

CNN reports:

Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.

The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs — Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.

One reason the nation’s intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, multiple sources tell CNN.

The piece of intel that has most of the internet buzzing regarded a visit by Trump to the Moscow Ritz Carlton, where he allegedly insisted on staying in the same suite where President and Mrs. Obama had stayed (whom he hated).

During the alleged hotel stay, Trump is said to have hired Russian prostitutes to "perform a 'golden showers' (urination) show." According to the report, the suite - in fact the entire hotel - was geared with microphones and concealed cameras.

So, you can image, if true, what the Russians would have on Trump.

Click the image to enlarge:

Former Speaker Of The House Dennis Hastert Indicted Over Payments To Conceal Past "Misconduct" With Another Man

Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted yesterday on federal criminal charges for allegedly paying a male from his past to try to conceal prior "sexual misconduct," the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday, citing two unnamed federal law enforcement officials.

More from Reuters:

One of the officials cited by the newspaper said the alleged misconduct involved a male and occurred during Hastert's time as a high school wrestling coach and teacher in Yorkville, Illinois, before becoming a lawmaker.

Prosecutors said the charges related to Hastert's alleged effort to hide $3.5 million in payments he was making to a person to conceal past misconduct, but did not detail the nature of the misconduct.

Asked why Hastert, an Illinois Republican who become his party's longest-serving House speaker before leaving Congress in 2007, was making the payments, the official told the Times that it was intended to conceal Hastert's past relationship with the male.

"It was sex," said the official, whom spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hastert, 73, was charged on Thursday with structuring the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000, and lying to the FBI about his withdrawals.

Each count of the two-count indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The unnamed sources underscored that the "misconduct" had nothing to do with his time in office and reached back to his days as a teacher and coach before his political career.

The Republican from a small suburb of Chicago was his party's longest serving Speaker of the House at 8 years.

The issue of hypocrisy comes up should the allegations be true. Hastert had an abysmal voting record against LGBT issues. From Raw Story:

As a federal legislator, Hastert voted regularly against bills to empower gay people. In Congress from 1997 to 2007, Hastert voted for the so-called “Marriage Protection Act,” and in favor of a constitutional amendment to “establish that marriage shall consist of one man and one woman.” The year he stepped down, Hastert voted no on the “Employment Non-Discrimination Act,” a bill to prohibit companies from discriminating against employees “on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Hastert resigned as speaker of the House following allegations that he failed to report former Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) for inappropriate relationships with boys employed as pages at the U.S. Capitol.