Page 142 - Ami News Today

Crime whatsoever. should the government determine that ami or its representatives have knowingly given false incomplete or misleading testimonial information or should ami violate any provision of the agreement. ami should subject for any violations which this office has knowledge shall be admissible and evidence. thats one big paragraph, not multiple points as i pointed out. >> ben, what does it mean for the nonprofit -- i am looking at shall commit no crime whatsoever. >> when jeff bezos stand...

Resources. michael speculated in documents seen by the washington post and the daily beast that this was david peckers attempt to sort of get back into the presidents good graces after he reached a cooperation deal with federal prosecutors in december. ami has vehemently denied that, but its not the craziest theory. >> speaking of crazy theories, what about the fact that ami might lose their cooperation agreement if it can be established, elliott, that there was a crime committed here. because b...

Is that blackmail and extortion tends to mean i have something thats embarrassing to you. pay me money. >> got it. >> here, ami is not asking for money. theyre asking for a statement from the bezos party that might be financially valuable to them. theyre asking for information. one level, this is basically informational warfare. we wont embarrass you with photos. dont embarrass us by talking about the trump white house with saudi arabia. underlying this, it is all about money. >> the attorney ye...

That deal between the ami and the feds stems from the committee admitting it paid a former playboy model $150,000 before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with donald trump. the agreement required ami to commit no crimes whatsoever for three years to avoid prosecution. if it broke the term of the deal, ami could be charged with campaign finance crimes. yesterday the lawyer for ami ceo david pecker rejected the allegations by bezos that the "national enquirer" publisher trie...

Beast." how real is this a possibility it leads back to the white house? >> it is a real possibility. it is important to be extremely clear about what it is we think we know and what we truly dont know. what we think we know is michael sanchez, the brother of the woman that bezos appears to be dating, that hes the one who supplied ami with these texts, with these stolen texts and photos. what we dont know, however, is why he did this. who asked him to do it? what he was paid or what he was compe...

The prosecutors, do you think i should send this correspondent to the richest man in the world? any good lawyer would have told you that would be ill advised. >> this is being compared to another case of a billionaire up against a media company. peter teal won that and gawker went out of business. scott galloway quoted. they had a mega load down after them. >> could this spell the end of the national enchiquirerenquire. >> if jeff bezos takes it to court, anything is possible. it would be incred...

Agency? who did it? how did it happen? >> and of course, gene, that question is being pursued right now. you also have to wonder, again, more questions than sanss right now that i suspect the southern district of new york has been focusing on a great deal but how desperate, how desperate did ami have to get to send that letter? it was an act of desperation and you do -- it does raise a question that bezos raised in that medium post, is this about saudi connection? is ami concerned about covering...

Committing a crime. now, you know people, analysts disagree about how plausible it is that ami could actually be subjected to prosecution here. i think it is probably and unlikely criminal case, it is just my gut instinct. if you have an agreement that does not require that you be charged with the crime, it simply requires that the government regard you as not having committed a crime. it does put a lot of power. you guys had not been in compliant with agreement, we are not going to charge you w...

Down to money, their financial relationship with the saudis. >> we know ami has faced financial challenges here in the past, including mounting debt. you also wonder whether taking on jeff bezos, whether this is going to lead to what happened previously. >> yeah, possibly. when you back up, ami isnt behaving like a media organization. its behaving like a mafia organization that happens to own a magazine. theyre in possession of certain assets, and they are making threats to protect those certain...

Writing about what he was doing and what his regime was really like. and it was counter to this image he wanted to project. now we dont -- we know that there was this weird relationship between the saudis and david peckers ami to the point where ami had to inquire whether it should register as a saudi agent. so we know these connections. we just dont know how all the parts worked together, if they all worked together and whether -- that well have to find out. >> that part which is new tonight is...