National Enquirer Paid Brother Of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Mistress  $200,000 To Leak Intimate Messages And Pics

The National Enquirer paid Michael Sanchez, brother of Jeff Bezos’ mistress Lauren Sanchez, $200,000 for obtaining the intimate messages between the two lovers that were published in January, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported.

The WSJ report validates an earlier conclusion reached by private investigators commissioned by Bezos early February. who too reportedly found that Michael Sanchez as the source of the lurid leak to the Enquirer.

As soon as the story of the billionaire businessman’s affair with Lauren Sanchez was published in Enquirer, Bezos had hired a private investigator to look into how those messages were leaked.

Gavin de Becker, a longtime private security consultant, was commissioned by Bezos to investigate whether Sanchez’s brother, revealed to be a supporter of Trump, may have orchestrated the leak for political reasons.

According to WSJ report, Michael Sanchez, a talent agent who has managed television pundits and reality show judges, categorically denied sending “the many penis selfies” allegedly in possession of the Enquirer. He also declined to comment on whether he provided any photos of the billionaire to the tabloid.

A spokesman for Bezos and Amazon declined to comment on the latest report, as did Lauren Sanchez.

Bezos had earlier accused the owner of The National Enquirer of blackmailing him into halting his investigation into their publication of private text messages he exchanged with his mistress.

In a hard-hitting blog post that he published within hours of announcing his divorce, Bezos revealed that intermediaries of David J Pecker, the chairman of American Media Inc (AMI), had threatened to print a number of revealing, personal photos that depict Bezos and his mistress in various states of undress, unless he agreed to halt his investigation into how the Enquirer accessed his private text messages.

In a blog post, Bezos also insinuated that Saudi Arabia's displeasure at the Bezos-owned Washington Post's aggressive coverage of the murder of its columnist and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have been a reason for the story. Bezos also provided links to media reports about alleged links between AMI and Saudi Arabia.

Soon after Bezos announced his divorce from novelist MacKenzie Bezos in early January, the National Enquirer outed his extramarital affair with married television anchor Lauren Sanchez in a report that included the couples’ private text messages.

AMI CEO Pecker is a longtime ally of U.S President Donald Trump having known each other for more than 20 years. Trump has been a trenchant critic of Bezos, Amazon and The Washington Post, frequently targeting them on Twitter. It is said that Pecker played a pivotal role in amplifying Trump’s presidential campaign.

According to The WSJ report, Pecker was cautioned by his advisers that publishing the Bezos story will result in accusation that he did it on behalf of Trump and could also result in a financially ruinous legal action from Bezos.