Page 141 - Ami News Today

Them by a.m.i. and its something the media should be discussing. howie: when say there was involvement in the hush money payment. jessica: over the affair with playboy play mates didnt make it. howie: a.m.i. said this was a negotiation about naked pictures, not blackmail. they said the source to his was close to both jeff bezos and lauren sanchez. thats the line a.m.i. is taking. whats your take calling out the extortion for what he seize as extortion, and for trying to pressure him into dropp...

Involved in a leak that would be bad for my sister. buck: there are a lot of layers you can dig into here. bezos coming forward and showing the legal exchange between the lawyers raised questions about the tactics of ami and the "national enquirer." as to whether bezos was poorly advised to get ahead of this story, its tough to tell. because we dont know how did the photos get out there? whose hands did they get into. and jeff bezos decided to declare war. howie: and chets is saying the bezos se...

Head of the american media and friend of president trumps said there was no blackmail, no extortion when the company threatened to publish embarrassing photos of jeff bezos if he didnt drop his investigation of the national enquirer and publicly say politics had nothing to do with it. he appeared sunday on abc this week. >> bezos didnt want another story written about him or those pictures published. ami did not want to have libel against them that this was inspired by the white house, inspired ...

By jeff bezos. >> says extortion/blackmail. >> absolutely not extortion, not blackmail. it was a source that was well known to both mr. bezos and ms. sanchez. >> was it michael sanchez? >> cant discuss the source. confidential within ami. so im not going to answer who the source was. >> joining me, my panel back with me. lets start at the top. ami saying this was not e extorti extortion. it was investigation. >> it turns on the technical details as to whether or not this is extortion. as far as ...

Extortion then the government can consider that nonprosecution null and void, they can prosecute them for the new crime and they can come back and prosecute them for everything they agreed not to prosecute them for before. >> does this leave both entities vulnerable, both david pecker and ami because ami had their nonprosecution agreement in september, david pecker made the agreement in august. david pecker could also be a focus as well. >> thats right. it leaves them both exposed. but i want to...

On, thats not journalism. thats extortion. thats blackmail. again, this is not the textbook, dictionary definition of extortion and blackmail because theyre not asking for money specifically, but what theyre asking for is for the bezos parties to make statements about "national enquirer" and ami that will protect amis relationship with the saudi government, potential potentially, who is paying them money. i think this is what is ultimately happening. this isnt journalism. this is mafia behavior....

Was even indicated was that bezos, in his initial post, referred to the saudis and there was a suggestion that some of the tools that were given to the saudis by our own government could have been used. and the saudis had a vanity -- a vanity piece brochure, published by ami about the crown prince at a point where he needed a lot of publicity. >> right. washington post was running sources on it. back to lauchlins point, aucklands razor, the most obvious explanation is the explanation that goes. ...

Prosecutors look at, right, both parties always want something. >> if prosecutors determine ami did, in fact, violate their nonprosecution agreement, what would that mean for the company and pecker? >> southern district of new york could decide to turn and and prosecute them or decide there were other implication for that. there would be fines, there would be other sanctions. the ramifications of this could run for the relatively minor tore the very extreme. well have to watch that one develop. ...

And the national enquirer, theyre a company and newspaper that have acted in, you know, very disturbing to be kind ways, ways that certainly seem to be a backup team to the president of the united states. and engage in efforts to support it. the question here is newspapers call all the time if youre an important person and say we have this. if its really untrue you can factually refute it. they dont always call and say we have this, but if you do this, well make this go away. thats what blackmai...

He was the source. but we do have multiple sources both within ami and within -- among folks who have spoken with ami leadership who have told us definitively that he is the source. obviously that still leaves many unanswered questions, why he did it, if his sister lauren had any involvement with it. these are things were going to continue reporting out. but we are confident reporting at this point that he was the source of the text messages. >> we still dont know how these photos and texts were...