Shortly after publication, he hired a team to find out how the tabloid got hold of those Text Messages and photographs. In a blog post posted an medium. Com, bezos said don howard threatened to publish additional photos unless bezos called off his investigation and made a specific false Public Statement to the press. There was no basis for claiming that ami had a political agenda. This can be seen as yet another battle in a larger war between trump allies and his critic. In a statement, ami says it was merely involved in good faith negotiations. To revolve owl matters. The company has acknowledged using the practice known as catch and kill to keep two women Stormy Daniels and Karen Mcdougal from publicizing their claims that they had affairs with the president. Throughout the campaign ami acted as a pr wing, you might say, of the trump campaign, promoting the candidate and savaging his opponents. For more, im joined now by glenn kirschner, former federal prosecutor, mclaughlin mar kay, and eli struggles. And katie fang, msnbc legal contributor. Thank you, all. This is like l. A. Confidential but in the middle off a huge political fight. Give this basis of the blackmail story. So we reported last week that jeff bezos had opened and personally funding the investigation into how these Text Messages ended up in the National Enquirer photographs . And photographs. There were a lot of personal details. Movement by Movement Accuracy is as one described it to me. So hes trying to figure out how this happened. He tasks his longtime personal security consultant, a man named given a debacker. I know him. Yeah, hes a storied person in this field, this personal Security Protection field. And he has determined with a pretty high degree of accuracy that he believes these were political motivations behind this leak and the publication of these Text Messages. We had sources telling us what did he mean by political . Why would jeff bezos think the ami National Enquirer was out to get him for political purposes. The National Enquirer and david pecker have longstanding ties to President Trump, which resulted in a Cooperation Agreement with federal prosecutors late last year. They admitted to using their publication to try to help win donald trump the presidency. Its no secret these are high profile allies of the president. They also started looking at the brother of the actual mistress in this case. A man named Michael Sanchez who has interesting doeksz prominent people in Donald Trumps orbit. So hes the brother of the alleged mistress . Thats correct. Hes longtime friends and Business Associates with folks like roger stone, carter page, some names that anyone following the news these days would probably know. To get the story straight, Everybody Knows the Washington Post used to be a liberal newspaper but now theyre middle of the road but trump doesnt like them. Called Jeff Bezos Jeff bozo. Was sort of prematurely dancing on his grave. So the president is thrilled of this. Hes obviously not a big fan of the Washington Post and by extension, hes not a big fan of jeff bezos. Katy, talk about the National Enquirer. I didnt know about this until recently, but all journalism is not aimed at getting this tory out. Some of this socalled journalism is well get dirt and sell you the secrecy. In other words, well get rid of it if you pay us. That is blackmail but they call it catch and kill. Your thoughts. What do we know about this m. O. Of the the National Enquirer. Yes, to dwhoet illustrious omar little, when you come at the king, you best not miss. Thats exactly whats happening now. Jeff bezos as the king is basically calling out ami in the traditional sense of how they do journalism at the National Enquirer. Its the catch and kill. Its let me pay you for the rights of your life story. A la the Karen Mcdougal situation with donald trump. Let me extort you for money so i dont run nasty things about you. But frankly, is it really extortion . While theres a federal crime, chris, that is defined by basically threatening to suppose somebody in exchange for something of value. You give me money i wont run the story. But there idea that inyou admit there really wasnt a political angle to this whole story, then would you basically be giving something of value and thats left to be seen. That agreement is weighing heavily on ami tonight. Let me go to glenn and the law here. If you blackmail someone. Its like l. A. Confidential out of San Francisco and l. A. Private eyes get hired, take a picture of a guy with his girlfriend, to put it bluntly. This is classic. In 10 words or less the law of extortion. Chris, 1,000 or i break your thumb. , right . Thats it. Its threatening harm to obtain a thing of value. It seems to me what we have here is a threat of harm. Harm doesnt have to be physical harm. It can be harm to ones reputation, which we have here because ami was threatening to suppose these indelicate pictures and Text Messages of bezos, right . In exchange for a thing of value. What value were they trying to get . They were trying to catch and kill stories that bezos and the Washington Post were trying to investigate and perhaps report. I see this as classic extortion. Katy is right. There are a lot of bells and whistles on the federal extortion laws, but at its core this is extortion. They wanted to stop bezos from investigating. With the help of gavin debecker. What were they looking for . What was bezos looking for on ami . This is the the bigticket question. Why did ami and perker respond so amma nighically. . It seems they are desperately fearful of something. Is it really just about some of their stories are politically motivated . Duh. So i think that really is the 64,000 question. Today the president remained uncharacteristically sound. Asked by reporters if the president was aware of the allegation. Heres what he said. Is it president aware of the bezos situation . What is the white houses reaction . Im not sure if hes aware of it. Were not going to get into a conversation about something between jeff bezos and a tabloid magazine. President trump has not been shy about sharing his opinion. In january days after the enquirer broke its bezos story, the president tweeted so sorry to hear the news about jeff bozo being taken down by a competitor whos reporting i understand is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the amazon Washington Post. Hopefully the paper will soon be placed in better, more responsible handling. Hes comparing the Washington Post, which is a pretty good newspaper with the National Enquirer. I cant stop laughing at what trump says. Its insane. Who believes this crap . Its a long way beyond parity. Hes been saying that National Enquirer deserves the Pulitzer Prize and ragging on the Washington Post. And has ever since hes been president this is a jack kennedy living quietly in poland kind of stuff. Look at this stuff. Its not the post east coverage, its the fact that bezos is the richest guy in the world and that is something that rankles donald trump. Hes always gotten under his skin and there are a lot of questions being asked. Obviously the president didnt comment on this today. He was getting a physical. He was going back and forth to the helicopter. Weve seen him often answer a lot of questions. He didnt do that today. Was he tired after the physical . Maybe did he want to avoid these questions . Possibly. What glen is talking about is really the key requequestion. Why was the National Enquirer so sensitive about what they might find about how they obtained those texts . Were going to get to this saudi thing in the next block. Why are they putting out these propaganda documents without any explanation of whos paying for them. They werent. Sources familiar with the matter say federal prosecutors are looking into whether ami, the National Enquirer owner, violated its nonprosecution district are investigating whether they violated conduct. In december ami signed the agreement in exchange for providing information in its role in a payment to play boy model, Karen Mcdougal, who claims she had an affair with trump prior to his presidency, which trump denies. They stipulated ami should commit no crime whatsoever and should ami commit any crime consent to the date of signing this mounted a agreement, they shall photographer be subject to prosecution. Glen, your area here. It seems at minimum it should say you dont commit anymore crimes. I mean, if theyre involved in extortion and or blackmail here, i would think that would violate the agreement ami blew it here. They could barely make it three weeks, let alone three years without violating another crime. This case, this extortion charge may not have to go to court and be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. All theyre going to have today is prove by a preponderance of the evidence. Manafort is being proved to have lied and violated his plea agreement. So this is not going to bode well for ami. Well, katy, its not your fault youre reporting this stuff, but it seems like President Trump came to office with this gallery of this world we didnt know about. We wouldnt know anybody about pecker who does catch and can kill or Stormy Daniels or Karen Mcdougal. This horrible rose gallery of people. The world hedges from, roy cone world, its horrible. Now were basically doing l. A. Confidential in the white house, this kind of crapola story we got to cover here. Your thoughts . But for the hubris of donald trump, we wouldnt know about the hidden secrets behind those curtains and the create for donald trump is you surround yourself with people like that, youre obviously going to be implicated by guilt. Its that association by guilt. Think about why is it that ami, which is by virtue an extension all accounts an e tension of donald trump and his surrogates. Why would ami cordsinate legal liability with jeff bezos, which is what donald trump tweeted about. He said that shareholders of amazon should know about how bad jeff bezos a guy is. And thats exactly what ami said interestingly when they told bezos team it was okay to do all these stories. Whats an interesting twist is the following. The deputy general counsel for ami worked at amazon for nine years. You would think the deputy general counsel would have a pretty good idea how jeff bezos operates. And so i think theyve underestimated jeff bezos and his reaction at this time. Ive been trying to figure out motivate, why people do what they do. Why would pecker, the head of ami, owner of the National Enquirer, want to get back in the good graces of the president of the United States . Well, he signed an immunity agreement, which means hes part of trouble trumps in because he told them stuff they wanted in exchange for his freedom. He wants to get back in his good graces. So he unleashes his dogs, photographers and perhaps the brother of bezos girlfriend and puts it all together and he goes to war so he can win the graces of the president back. What do you think . What other motive is there . Thats certainly what a lot of folks in jeff bezos orbit seem to suspect. The president doesnt like snitches. I dont know if hes used that exact word, but he said it should be illegal for people to flip in exchange for prosecution. Michael cohen hes not Michael Cohens biggest fan. These days. So that obviously gets under his skin and if youre david picker, thats potentially beneficial and lucrative person to have on your side and to have distance between him and the president in very many years, i would imagine you would want to are repair that relationship. We have to have somebody challenge him in the next year, so here we go again. Its too bad we need you so often. Eli, our buddy here. Katy, thank you for your site on this. Coming up another possible motivation for the enquirers wore, this battle. Why the owner of the Washington Post believes david pecker is tied toyota saudis. Why is the National Enquirer the best friend in the country the saudi arabia government including its crown prince and murder of khashoggi. A combative hearing today of the man overseeing the russia investigation, attorney general Matt Whitaker. Bottom line, he wouldnt say one good word about Robert Mueller for fear of what the boss man might say. Plus a latebreaking story out of virginia. It gets worse. A second woman has now accused Lieutenant GovernorJustin Fairfax of Sexual Assault saying its worse than just Sexual Assault, its rape, saying he raped her while in college at duke 19 years ago. We have a lot to get to tonight. Stay with us. Aaaaaahhhhhhhh ballooned your car. Call meeeee burke a flyby ballooning. Seen it, covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum billions of problems. Morning breath . Garlic breath . Stinky breath . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath fresh breath oral rinse instantly fights all types of bad breath and works for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy. Theres therabreath at walmart. Oh no. Your new boss seems cool, but she might not be sweatpants cool. Not quite ready to face the day . Thats why were here with free hot breakfast. Book at hampton. Com for our price match guarantee. Hampton by hilton. Book at hampton. Com for our price match guarantee. Upgrade to new tide pods 2. 0. And get 50 more cleaning power in the palm of your hand, for a powerful clean in one step. 1 stain and odor fighter, 1 trusted. Its got to be tide. Welcome back to hardball. The alliance between President Trump and david pecker head of ami and the National Enquirer isnt the only motive bezos subcontracts for peckers alleged blackmail. In his post yesterday, bezos suggests peckers tarabia calle. For reasons to be better understood, the saudi angle seems the hit a sensitive nerve, he wrote. He brought one of saudi crown princes advisors to an oval meeting with President Trump while pecker, quote, was considering expanding his media and events business into saudi arabia. Last year pecker also published a 97page progressed spread praisi oncluded ordered the butchering of Jamal Khashoggi last year. Hes guilty. The crown prince did it. The white house remains the lone defender of the crown prince after refusing to meet todays deadline set by congress to determine if the saudis were responsible for khashoggis murder and butchering. Im joined by gregory mix. Congressman thank you for coming on this friday. This story has how many twists and turns, but the idea of ami, the National Enquirer its owner david pecker and having some alliance with khashoggis crowd, the crown princes crowd is really disturbing. When you think why would it come to this based on making money, what other purpose could it have to go around the country and every bookstore and every hudsons or street corner, kiosk, has almost 100page glossy propaganda piece saluting the kingdom of saudi arabia. Your zbloukts absolutely right. Follow the money. What does saudi arabia have a lot of . Money. Why does he want to do business in saudi arabia . To protect money. Independently say if you would look at some of those dots where the dollars are coming from and the financial scenario or situation that pecker money. When i think about it, just think about the president , for example. When the american banks stopped lending him money, two places where he was going to get money was through russia and saudi arabia. And so while they his good friend, mr. Pecker, who was buying up stories to keep certain things out of the paper, not go to the where . Saudi arabia in this instance. I would dare say that we need to look at it what took place and follow that money line and then you may get your answer you know, theres also another piece in this. I read the postevery morning. One of the papers columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, was killed and butchered in daylight pretty obviously at the accommodatcons turkey. They act like they could get away with it because they figured out this president. This president will not give them trouble over it. Youre absolutely right. Virtually every country in the world with the exception of the United States president has put the blood blood on the hands of mbs, except for this president. The u. N. Has, every country has. Theres a big question mark as to why this president does not come out solidly with the rest of the world because all of our intelligence agencies also put the gun or the knife in the hands of mbs. Only one person that doesnt, the president of the United States. In the past Presiden