. >> i've written a lot about david pecker. i wrote a profile of him in "the new yorker." and he's in the print business. and like a lot of people in the print business, he's been struggling. and he needs money, he needs investors. and where do you go for money and for investors? you go to saudi arabia. so you have this set of allies, you have the president, you have the saudi government, and you have pecker and on the other side, you have bezos whose newspaper has been totally outspoken in outrage over the murder of their colleague, khashoggi. and, you know, that's another sinister aspect to all of this, that ami and the "national enquirer" are carrying water for the saudi government as well as the white house. >> yeah. >> i thought -- let me read this, because i want you to respond. it has to do with what he says. this is what bezos wrote about this. he's connecting all of this. this is max with the "the washin pos post". it's unavoidable that certain powerful people that experience "washington post" news coverage will wrongf

pecker.is alleged affair with a "playboy" model. who knows what else. keep in mind pecker is supposed to be cooperating with federal prosecutors investigating the catch and kill payments "the enquirer" made. the stunning claim tonight made by bezos raises questions than expected cooperation. now last month "the national enquirer" made bezos' affair with a woman a front-page story. that came hours after bezos posted a statement on twitter from he and his wife of 25 years announcing their plans to divorce. after the tabloid story, bezos launched his own investigation to find out who leaked photos of him with his girlfriend, lauren sanchez, a former tv news anchor. tonight he is going after "the enquirer" and its parent company ami because he says they resorted to blackmail to stop his own investigation. bezos writes online, quote, 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 th

what makes that so weird is that david pecker -- i have written about this and others, david pecker is he told me and others that the reason he paid karen mcdougal $150,000 was to suppress her story and help donald trump get elected president. the idea that the "national enquirer" is some journalistic enterprise that is independent of politics is just absurd. you can see why bezos and "the post" being responsible journalists wouldn't possibly agree to lie to protect bezos from this embarrassment. >> is it weird or is it potentially a crime if you believe what bezos is now writing as far as the "national enquirer," american media and david pecker are concerned? >> gosh, you know, that's a law school hypothetical that i'm really not sure i'm prepared to answer at this point. i don't think a journalistic enterprise could be charged with an actual crime for doing this. it's disgraceful journalism. it's appalling behavior on the part of the american media, which is the parent company of the "national enquirer." whether it's an actual crime -- >> he suggests, jeff, extortion and blackmail. t

david pecker and donald trump are very, very close. and pecker is known to protect donald trump.ere is a vault with stories that ami has captured and bought on behalf of donald trump that pecker is working to keep from becoming public. we know this. i saw that when i worked there. and i will say that what they're doing to jeff bezos is politically motivated. there's no question the reason ami spent so much time and resources tracking down the story about alleged affairs and relationships on on behalf of jeff cheating on his wife, there's no question that was done in order to retaliate against him because of his feud with donald trump. >> so you're saying that you feel that the e-mails that we've seen that have been released by bezos showing him making these threats, showing him trying to deal with bezos was politically motivated because of his relationship with the president? >> absolutely. >> his being of course pecker. >> let's look at the facts. donald trump lethally tweeted out the story, promoted it, laughed about it and indulged in it because he has a relationship with peck

pecker would want to cover that up.wo weeks ago and said we got to do something about -- who knows what. who knows what bezos is investigating. for me, nothing else would explain them going so crazy at ami. >> this is going to be a crucial question here and this is why i bring up a long-time relationship and personal between president trump and david pecker who is obviously the publisher of ami. david pecker now cooperating with the southern district of new york investigation into michael cohen and these payments. >> yeah. >> and jeff bezos mentioning donald trump by name very explicitly, saying one person who would have an interest and has made it clear that they don't like "the washington post" coverage and i own "the washington post" is president trump. >> and the people at ami better be very, very fortunate in their dealings with the southern district u.s. attorney's office because there is a term in there, nonprosecution agreement, that says you may not commit any other crimes. that list of crimes could include ext

in his post yesterday, bezos suggests pecker's tarabia calle. reasons to be better understood, the saudi angle seems the hit a sensitive nerve, he wrote. he brought one of saudi crown prince's 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 97-page progressed spread praisi oncluded ordered the butchering of jamal khashoggi last year. he's guilty. the crown prince did it. the white house remains the lone defender of the crown prince after refusing to meet today's deadline set by congress to determine if the saudis were responsible for khashoggi's murder and butchering. i'm 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 khashoggi's crowd, the crown prince's crowd is really disturbing. when you think why would it come to this based on making money, what othe

pecker was pursuing business there. bezos reporting the washington post coverage of the murder of a person who wrote for them, jamal khashoggi. many remember this. this was in the saudi consulate in turkey. saudi arabia is a huge critic of the post investigation. and now for some reason is david pecker and this, again, to what jeff bezos is asking is a big question. he writes several days ago, an ami leader advised us that pecker is apoplectic about our investigation. for reasons still to be better understood, a saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve. that's a lot. a lot of it looks bad even if it's not all true. now, let that all sink in and look at a brand new report from the daily beast which details the larger patterns. private investigators who have literally directly worked for them and the quote, war of blackmail that goes on and helps explain their business model and perhaps their brazenness they thought they could get away with this against the richest man in the world. joining me now as promis

pecker looked finished and was testifying. new evidence suggests pecker may still be in the game. either because he can't help himself or because there was some other thing so dangerous he would risk his own federal immunity deal to stop it from getting out. now tonight we don't know what that thing would be. but we have heard the inquire error's own past employees, a 28-year veteran of the "enquirer" told us two months ago another shoe would be dropping. >> do you think that ami did act in concert with the trump campaign to break the law? and should be held accountable? >> i think they did. and i think there's another shoe to drop. i mean, the special counsel's focus is now moving towards you know, the saudi's role in all of this. they may not be out of trouble yet. >> that was jerry george, the "enquirer's" l.a. bureau chief for 28 years. he's back with me along with maya wiley for a legal perspective as well. jerry, is this the other shoe? >> yes, it's at least one shoe that's going to drop. it was not, it was not expected,

pecker, mr. trump and anyone doing their bidding. now, let that all sink in and then look at a brand-new report from "the daily beast" tonight which details the larger patterns here, the inner workings of this tabloid company's tactics, private investigators who have literally directly worked for them. the quote, war of blackmail that goes on and helps explain their business model and perhaps their brazenness that they thought they could get away with this against the richest man in the world. joining me, as promiseed, is the editor-in-chief of "the daily beast." i'm also joined by jonathan alter. a columnist for the daily beast and an msnbc analyst. and david christof. both have been to saudi arabia. i'm not going any time soon. >> you might like it, ari. you might not feel totally comfortable. >> i'm sure there are lovely people there. i'm not sure i would like the way the government plays ball, certainly the way they kill journalists. >> yeah. >> but before we get to that, walk us through new reporting tonight. most people who hea

at one point, bezos writes that, in particular, the david pecker/ami, that pecker was apoplectic about investigation, the "washington post's" investigations, for reasons still to be better understood, but there was a saudi angle that seemed to have hit a particular sensitive nerve of bezos writes. and of course, one of those reasons could be that the murder of jamal khashoggi, of course, and his relationship with the "washington post." so there's still a lot here that needs to be developed, but these are things that according to bezos the "washington post" was working on and it appears that david pecker was concerned. >> interesting. also some new details tonight about the closed-door court hearing between the special counsel's office and paul manafort. what is mueller focusing on? >> yeah, so this was interesting. this was a sealed hearing on monday. today, we got ahold of the transcri transcripts. some of it was redacted as we usually see in these hearings. what we did learn is the special counsel's office was very interested, they called it at this hearing, the heart of their invest

and pecker helped trump cover up an alleged affair with a former playboy model. >> david pecker not onlyas a long friendship with donald trump, he has put his money where his mouth is. he paid off karen mcdougal to maintain her silence. >> reporter: but since then, david pecker was granted immunity by prosecutors in new york and agreed to provide them information on those hush money deals. cnn has learned that deal could be in jeopardy, if prosecutors find pecker or ami broke the law in their dealings with bezos, they could lose their immunity in the hush money cases. ami put out a statement saying it believes it acted lawfully in reporting the bezos story, but said its board is going to investigate bezos' claims. ami rejects any assertion that its reporting was instigated or influenced by any outside forces, political, or otherwise. a spokesman at the white house says he doubts if president trump is even aware of all of the bezos reporting. and asked if his government ever tried to get ami to put out negative stories about jeff bezos, saudi arabia's foreign minister said quote, as far a

pecker has other relationships around the president. remember, jared kushner at one point and the observer and the "national enquirer" had some potential business deal together and so i think that there's a lot going on here and we're going to spend several days trying to figure it out have some thank you, maggie. appreciate if the always like your insight on this. >> now more on the breaking news that we brought you at the top of the show. the u.s. supreme court blocking a louisiana law going into effect today that would have imposed new restrictions on abortion clinics. justiceon roberts joining the four liberals to state law until it's fully reviewed. justice brett kavanaugh wrote a dissent on the decision. joining us now, jeffrey toobin. you were the one who said when everything was starting with braupt brett kavanaugh when he was confirmed this is going to be the start of the end of roe v wade, i'm paraphrasing there. >> no, you're quoting exactly. >> i remember everything you say, jeff toobin. >> yes. >> is this starting us down t

pecker? [ laughter ] >> steve: david s. pecker?mmy: no, no, no, it's bezos. >> steve: bezos's pecker. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: no, david -- pecker versus bezos. >> steve: david peer leaked photos. >> jimmy: no, he's got all of those photos. >> steve: that's nuts. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: well i mean, it's not -- it's not easy -- it's not easy to get those things off of his phone, you ow. >> steve: no, it's hard. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: certainly is. >> steve: yeah. [ light laughter ] >> jimmy: can we see a photo of jeff bezos? [ laughter ] today, amazon said if you like nude photos of jeff bezos, we also suggest nude photos of e hondel. [ laughter and applause ] >> steve: what? how would they do that? >> jimmy: that's very thoughtful of them. how would they know? you guys, it is fashion week here in new york. [ cheers and applause ] yeah, feel the vibe? a lot of famous designers are debung their new lines. but it turns out washington, d.c. was also full of interesting looks this week. for instance, here trump's u

with regard to david pecker, ami and realtime what his relationship with donald trump is they are not in the greatest situation right now. pecker has, according to our reporting been cooperating with federal prosecutors around and about these payments. unclear if the two are sympatico politically as we speak. there's no question they were during the president's campaign. >> we know, too, donald trump -- i remember i used to work at "the washington post." donald trump would take shots at the post because jeff bezos owned it. it was some sort of tax credit. none of that accurate. referred to him as jeff bozo. we know donald trump's relationship with jeff bezos at least publicly is maybe a one-sided relationship but not pleasant. >> we are also forgetting to mention one important thing when we talk about intimidating

kim, to me it's not a surprise how david pecker runs his business. we've known this is how the enquirer operates for years, but it seems incredibly reckless to put these threats in an email given that there's a deal that was made with federal prosecutors? >> right. the cooperation deal had to do with the quid pro quo to silence a woman who had had a relationship with the president, karen mcdougal and they essentially agreed, listen, doj said we're not going to prosecute you for the related election and campaign finance violations with this if you cooperate and the agreement is very clear. the deal is completely off if you engage had any crimes whatsoever. we don't know if there are any crimes here. possibly if the information mr. bezos's private information was hacked, that's certainly a crime, and there's some talk about extortion. that's another question of the whether there's elements or facts getting rise to that. the notion that they have this agreement, the justice department is -- has them under scrutiny, the noose was around their neck and th

, or by saudi arabia, which also has ties to david pecker.cal motivation. i they is the threat that's going to be pulled out over the course of the next few days and weebs. >> that's what's so fascinating, willie geist, that, you know, during the campaign you had, again, the "national enquirer" doing donald trump's bidding clearly. whether it was ted cruz or had to do with other front-runners. mika and i, of course were threatened by the staff. the staff, the white house staff that a story would run if we didn't change our coverage. and so many others threatened as well, but this moves beyond donald trump. now suddenly that donald trump relationship has helped ami in their relationship with the saudis. so now suddenly it is a coverage of -- khashoggi, that they continued cover of that murder that now obviously is -- is getting under the saudis skin and their new ally david pecker. >> yeah. read that piece of the "post" so people get the context. in the media post jeff bezos wrote unavoidable people who experience "washington post" news covera

pecker." mr. pecker in this case is not an insult to somebody. it's the name of the ceo of american immediamedia david pec longtime friend of president trump. in this post tonight, bezos publishes what he says is the full un-redacted recent correspondence he's had with "the national enquirer," pecker's company which he describes as a, quote, extortion and blackmail effort. here we go. quote, rather than capitulate to exterior and blackmail, i have decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they have threatened. bezos says, quote, a few weeks ago when intimate text messages for me were published, i urged investigators to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by "the enquirer." there are now several independent investigations looking into this matter. quote, several days ago an a.m.i. leader advised us, meaning him and his lawyers and hiss guy he's hired to lead an investigation for him. several days ago an a.m.i. leader advised us that mr. pecker, david pecker, the ceo of american m

pecker flipped on the president.r, this is all in context of the catch and kill allegations regarding one of the president's para mores, right? and then were colluding with trump, then candidate to hide information while exposing dirt on his opponents. now, pecker apparently flipped on the president and has spoken to the counsel. was this an attempt to get back in his good graces and return to fo form? obviously this is muscle memory in the is extortion and blackmail. and we all know sunshine is the best disinfectant to and there's no place to hide for the chief content officer of this company because that whole e-mail going through saying these are the pictures we've got and saying i hope we don't have to release them, i hope cooler heads will prevail, sign this agreement which keeps us -- gives us the power over you going forward and then ending it with a little fig leaf of ethics saying we hope this is obviously a note that no editor would like to send. this is part of their game plan. it's muscle memory, extortio

pecker. who is pecker to trump? he's his buddy. helping out with the payments to at least those two women. catch and kill. doing them favors. that's being investigated. then there's the saudis. is there anything relevant to you about that because jeff bezos was laying crumbs out about that. he was saying he brought the saudi guy to the white house which was a favor from the president and he was trying to do business with him. is there anything there? >> like so many of these stories -- and i have been privileged to be on your show in the middle of a lot of them when they're breaking. those are hints. the bezos blog post is full of hints that there were larger political connections. but that's all they are. they're just crumbs. the dots have not yet been connected and i think as is always the case, we need to see how the facts unfold, where the evidence leads. i admit it is insen y, but he d come out and say it. >> maybe i'm too cynical, but i have to tell you something, when i read this, it's not a bad move to reduce the chances th

noting david pecker's loyalty to president trump. >> for a very long time, david pecker was a friend of trump because he caught and killed stories. because he kept stories that reflected negatively on trump out of the public view. ten attacks bezos publicly, going o hich th >> "the washington post," which i call a lobbying tool for amazon -- >> reporter: bezos also alludes in the blog to an unspecified connection between pecker and saudi arabia, writing, mr. pecker is apoplectic about our investigation, adding, for reasons still to be better understood, the saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve. "washington post" has aggressively investigated the murder of its reporter and saudi dissident jamal khashoggi. bezos noting the undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles. today ami says it had been in good-faith negotiations with bezos and believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story. the board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. meanwhile, the bezos bombshell is triggering even more claims. ro

. ( laughter ) last week, jeff bezos accused david pecker of blackmail and extortion. he claimed the "national enquirer" had obtained messages between bezos and his mistress, lauren sanchez. and they threatened to publish his sexy texts, or "sexts", as well as sexy photos, or "sexotos." ( laughter ) but for once, the man who took pictures of his own junk is taking the classy route. bezos refused to give in to the blackmail in a blog post titled "no thank you, mr. pecker." ( laughter ) which is exacly how i feel about seeing jeff bezos' penis. ( laughter ) but thank you. thank you but no thank you. ( applause ) how kind. ( piano riff ) how very generous. here's the backstory: last month, bezos announced he and his wife of 25 years, mackenzie, were getting a divorce. days later, the enquirer published a front page expose that included pictures of bezos and his mistress, and embarrassing text messages like "i love you, alive girl." ew. i'm not sure what that means. "alive" is not a pet name, it's really a prerequisite for dating. that's why you never see a candy heart tha

he said it had in his e-mail that david pecker was a interested in the connection. so what is driving that side, you better do this or we be publish these pictures. of course i agree with mimi's assessment as well. if there was a hack of communications or a skeers, you have to look differently at this. you look at the private eye and my people have interactions with him, he has a tremendous reputation, a great guy. you have to look at him a little different. you have to look at him as a witness. the federal witness tampering statute is extremely strong. it is for somebody that corruptly persuades someone that may have information about a possible criminal investigation, if any, they try to persuade that person, that is witness tampering. so if you have a conspiracy for a crime, wire hacking, you could have witness tampering. there is witness tampering possible here. and i would say he has called the agency in l.a., asked them to look into this. it needs to be looked into. that doesn't mean a crime has been committed, but you will have to talk to all of your legal an

the times with pecker go back to 1990 and helped cover up an affair with a playboy model. >> he has a long relationship with president trump. he put his money where his mouth is. he paid off karen mcdougal for silence. >> reporter: they agreed to provide information on hush money deal. cnn learned that deal could be in jeopardy if they found pecker of ami broke the law, they could lose their immunity in hush money cases. ami says it believes it acting lawfully in reporting the bezos money but the board is going to investigate bezos' claims. they reject insertion they were influenced by any outside forces, political or otherwise. a spokesman at the white house says he doubts if president trump is even aware of all the bezos reporting and asked if his government ever tried to get ami to put out negative stories about bezos. saudi arabia's foreign minister said, quote, as far as i no, flat out no. brian todd, cnn, washington. >>> ignored a legal deadline to tell congress whether he thinks the saudi crown prince ordered the murder of the journalist. under the magnitsky act, he had 120 day

he has studied donald trump's relationship to david pecker. and joyce vance is here to cover the legal points for us. she is a former federal prosecut prosecutor. and we're joined by jerry george who spent 28 years at the "national enquirer," including as the los angeles bureau chief. has david pecker ever been up against anyone like jeff bezos before? >> i think for the first time david pecker has met his match. we have finally gone through the looking glass, and we are way beyond yellow journalism. we are now in the area of the rico act. this is extortion. >> yeah. joyce vance, let me go straight to you on the legal points here because there is so much in here. jeff bezos is very clearly saying this is extortion. this is blackmail. i read that e-mail from a lawyer in new york to marty singer from los angeles, and i have never seen an e-mail quite like that from lawyer to lawyer. >> it looks like our common understanding of what blackmail is, this kind of a threat. in federal law, there is a family of crimes under this umbrella of extortion a

pecker helped trump cover up an affair with a former playboy model. >> david pecker not only has a longdship with donald trump, he paid off karch mcdougall to maintain her silence. >> reporter: since then he agreed to provide hush money deals. tonight it could be in jeopardy if they find pecker or ami broke the law, they could lose the money. ami responded it believes it acting lawfully but said its board is going to investigate bezos's claims. as for president trump, the white house spokesman said he's not sure if president trump is even aware of the latest bezos story. if asked by cnn if his government ever trite to put out stories, bezos said as far as i know, flat out no. >> what are you learning as to how the "enquirer" might have gotten the texts between bezos and his girlfriend? >> a source is telling us people on the bezos size believe is michael sanchez, the brother of bezos's girlfriend could be the person who gave those intimate and personal emails to them. gavin debecker has told the "washington post" and daily beast has looked at sanchez and questioned him. he's not provide

david pecker could also be a focus as well. >> that's right. it leaves them both exposed.ut i want to be clear it's not for investigating jeff bezos. not for publishing photos of him in public with his girlfriend walking to the theater or to a restaurant. the key will likely be the demand made by ami's lawyer. on ami's side they will argue look this is what lawyers do all the time. i've done it hundreds of time. you send a letter or e-mail saying tomorrow we'll file this attach complaint, start a lawsuit against you unless you resolve this case today. that's something lawyers do every single day. >> that's much different from what we've read. >> that's right. that's where it probably breaks down. lawyers are demanding settlement otherwise they will file a lawsuit, something they are legally privileged to do. on the other hand, if, for example, ami got these photographs in an ill-gotten way and threatening to release something harmful and embarrassing it falls closer to the definition of extortion under federal and state law. >> this is one of those days where you need a go

>> this spells a big problem for ami, for david pecker. the southern district of new york is not playing around. if they get any sense, they're pretty aggressive, relentless. if i think that am sximpb david pecker went against this deal. they gave them this nonprosecution agreement. they wouldn't prosecute them for their involvement. if they get any expense ami was doing this, that there was anything criminal here, they'll rip up the cooperation agreement. and ami could face some legal jeopardy. they're going to have lots of questions. how did the "national enquirer" get their hands on this material which could spell even more trouble for this group. and whether or not it was politically motivated. this had open a lot of doors that will lead to a lot of trouble. >> thank you. appreciate your time. >> i'll bring in now mr. james clapper. thank you for joining us. >> thanks, don. >> give me your takeaway from the acting a.g. whitaker's testimony today. did you find him incredible? >> not really. i spent 25, 27 years in various capacities tes

of american media, david pecker. no thank you, mr. pecker. in this post tonight, mr. bezos push accomplishes what he says is the full unredacted recent correspondence he's had with the "national inquirer" he describes as an extortion and blackmail effort. nbc has not independently verified these. rather to capitulate. i decided to publish exactly what they sent me despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threatened. a few weeks ago when intimate text messages were published, i got investigators to determine the motives or the actions taken by the "inquirer" there are several independent investigations looking into this matter. several days ago a leader advised us, meaning him and his lawyers and this guy he's hired to lead an investigation for him, several days ago an a.m.i. leader advised us david pecker, the ce, oco of america media is apoplectic about our investigation and we were approached verbally at first with an offer. they said they had more text messages and photos they would publish if we did not stop our investigation. i guess we, me, my lawyers, t

>> the relationship between pecker at ami and trump goes back to the 90s.y enjoyed a close relationship, and it's also, you know, and since then, there has been additional reporting that has showed that david pecker and ami has benefitted from its relationship with trump. if trump was able to basically get ami to help cover up damaging stories about him, and to also promote negative stories about hillary clinton, that he in turn -- >> or tickers. >> that david pecker may have received some benefits from his close relationship with the white house, especially when it came to business pursuits that he was pursuing with the saudis. and so, you know, listen, trump is not the only person on whose behalf david pecker has done favors. >> sure. >> and has like waded into questionable and the question is whether or not illegal tactics to benefit them. >> this day. thank you so much. thank you both. >>> and up next, amazing new reporting from the "washington post" about a virtual pipeline of undocumented immigrants to find work at donald trump's properties. o find wo

it comes as pecker's attorney is pushing back on claims jeff bezos made in an extraordinary blogpost late last week. >> it's absolutely not extortion and not blackmail. >> reporter: the amazon founder wrote that representatives for american media, inc. threatened to release intimate texts and photos between him and his alleged mistress lauren sanchez if he didn't publish what he called a false public statement saying he didn't think ami's coverage was politically motivated and end his investigation into how they got previous texts which they published shortly after bezos announced his divorce. nbc news has not independently reviewed the e-mails in bezos' post. bezos posted to ami's connection to the saudi government as well as president trump. pecker's attorney stressing the dealing with bezos were just journalism. >> i think both bezos and ami had interests in resolving their differences. >> reporter: since bezos' post, others have come forward saying they, too, were victims of the same practices. actor terry cruz tweeting that ami tried to silence me by fabricating stories. investi

and that the board, which david pecker is in charge of, will thoroughly look into what happened. not an outside investigation. they'll look at themselves. dan springer reporting. he's live in our pacific northwest bureau in seattle. >> shep, it's a stunning battle between media moguls especially considering one likes to fly under the radar. jeff bezos is accused of blackmail and extortion. bezos launched his own investigation the same day he announced he was getting a divorce. he wanted to know how they got texts between laura sanchez and him and if the story was politically motivated. david pecker is a an ally of president trump and investigated by the department of justice for paying to kill a story of an alleged trump affair to help him collected. now the justice department is looked into whether ami might have committed a crime in violation of its agreement. bezos owns the "washington post" who has come under attack of president trump. the big bomb shell came out last night when bezos released e-mails between his camp and a lawyer for ami. in them, ami says they have ten comp

david pecker is a longtime friend of the president and is also of course, cooperating against him inhat campaign finance case in the southern district. "the national enquirer" has taken on -- has taken back stories about the president, buried stories about president trump and they go after jeff bezos. of course, jeff bezos owns "the washington post" which has also been tough on the president. these ties to saudi arabia there is so much tangled up in as well. this story. right now what bezos is alleging is, you see it right there, extortion and blackmail. whether it meets the legal standard is one question. whether it will threaten the cooperation agreement that david pecker has with the southern district is the second question and then you have the whole question of whether it's proper journalistic practice to offer to bury a story in return for something of value, a public statement, from jeff bezos. >> we can answer that question, not proper journalistic practice. i don't know about the law here. let's loop back for a second to the big story out of virginia. we're still talking abo

the lawyer says bazos should say publicly -- david pecker is a confidant of president trump.ami's lawyer said the enquirer would not publish lewd pictures and texts from bazos it has in its possession. bazos called that blackmail and extortion. on sunday speaking on abc's this week, pecker rejected the claim. >> it absolutely is not extortion and not blackmail. what happened was the story was given to the national enquirer by a reliable source that had given information to the national enquirer for seven years prior to this story. it was a source that was well-known to both mr. bazos and ms. sanchez. it is not extortion because all that ami wanted was the truth. bazos and ms. sanchez knew who the source was. any investigator that was going to investigate this knew who the source was. it was not the white house. it was not saudi arabia. >> pecker's attorney says he could not confirm or deny if sanchez's brother was the tipster who provided the texts and photos after bazos was asked for comment bazos and his wife mckenzie announced they were divorcing. >>> amazon having second

trump and pecker have a well documented history.he tabloid paying a catch and kill fee to karen mcdougal once before the 2016 election, for her story about her alleged affair with trump which he denies. pecker flipped, cooperating with robert mueller's team in exchange for immunity to detail those payments made by trump's lawyer. calling the amazon ceo jeff bozo on twitter and saying this about his looming divorce from his wife of 25 years. >> i wish him luck. it's going to be a beauty. >> no doubt this is a complex web of allegations and personal history. what bezos is saying here is clear that ami had reasons to protect and protect those saudis, correct? driving home the point that this was politically motivated. >> joining us now. criminal tax turn, what these e-mails show is blackmail and an extortion attempt. does he have a good case? >> anna, good to see you, good afternoon i believe he does, here's why i believe he does have a good case. some in different legal minds can disagree, that's fine. the essence of extortion, is whe

they think that pecker is closely aligned with trump pecker put together a special issue on behalf ofbs at one point. >> so for saudi arabia they come in on behalf of trump. there's a lot of -- crisscrossing connections. lauren sanchez's brother who they think actually somehow -- is apparently some pro-trump supporter, and they have a view internally that somehow he was the one who got the pictures and leaked them to the national enquirer just to put the full information out there. >> to make it as complicate as possible we were reading through bezos's post, and it's like trying to solve for x. it was cloont jtd clear what he was claiming is he trying to -- is that what's happening at the same time pecker -- he has turned basically -- he is going to help out the federal prosecution into trump, and so there's a concern that, like, is he now turning on trump? incredibly complicated it's unclear where the dots really line up >> to andrew's point about the national enquirer and ami, if they've been gifted information, whoever gifted it to them, however that person had to retrieve -- got t

pecker got immunity a couple months ago. howie: . . aggressive strategy. sometimes at the end of the day you are putting a propane tank on top of a duraflame log. i have been in the media cross-hairs. i took a month or two off then went at it aggressively. i don't like people defining me. but the way jeff is going about this is creating too much unseemliness around him. he's a very rich guy, if i were his advisor i would have said go slow. but a lot of people are praising him for this saying he has courage and think it's a good idea. but i'm sort of against it. howie: he inflamed the story once again. i have got to play a sound bite for you. >> surprise! i am actually not a big brother houseguest. howie: there you are celebrity big brother. >> you have a reality tv star that's the american president. all you elites wake up, the american people are watching that sort of stuff. if you get invited on "celebrity big brother," i recommend you go it was one of the most of fun things i have done in my life. howie: great to see you, mooch. anthony: if you were my

pecker so upset about the saudi connection.nd a money trail back to the saudis, we know that ami has been interested in getting saudi funding and there could be issues there in terms of foreign money influencing the election. >> shan, this claim made by bezos' security chief, who's very well known in the security realm that he believes it's possible that a government entity may have gotten ahold of bezos' text messages, the most obvious question is which government entity or could it also mean a foreign government? >> exactly. and if it's a foreign government, it goes right back to this idea of foreign influence in the elections. and that can also, if they had resources monetary helping with this, that could also be another campaign finance violation. and there's also the intriguing aspect of if a mchmi was gettin resources from the saudis or some other government that they're also acting as an agent for that and we saw that with the manafort and gates situation. that's an area that the justice department has become much more r

i should point out that i know david pecker well.did a personal finance column, couple columns, for him for men's fitness magazines, one of the or propertither properti owns. i actually like the guy. we graduated from pace university together. different times, but get all that out of the way. here's the problem that he faces, i think. it's two-fold. number one, is what he did to bezos, the letter saying if you don't do x, meaning cease and desist your investigation into how your e-mails were hacked and also say that we didn't obtain them illegally, if you don't do that, we will do this which is publishing all sorts of racy pictures about him and his girlfriend. is that extortion legally common law? spoke with john coffey at columbia university, one of the biggest finance law professors. he says it doesn't quite make it because it's not directly involving money and not involving -- let me just finish -- okay. spoke with other former federal prosecutors this weekend as well. could this blow up the deal even if it falls short of the leg

how bad is this for david pecker? >> i think it is bad.tate law but certainly prima facie that he has. if he has, his immunity deal falls apart. if he violated it, he could go to jail. >> absolutely. the first risk is that he is going to be prosecuted, conceivably, or be investigated for the blackmail crime. the second risk is that he and others at ami have already admitted to the campaign finance violations that michael cohen was convicted of and they were going to not be prosecuted under this agreement. the agreement can be torn up and they can be prosecuted. >> it is pretty stunning. the president has made it very clear his views on jeff bezos and the "washington post." after the bezos news broke, the president couldn't contain his excitement. i shared the tweet, so sorry to hear about jeff bezos. i understand. and then happy to jump in on camera and talk about jeff bezos who of course is going through a divorce, partly as a result of all this coming out. here's the president. >> what's your reaction? >> his divorce is fair? >> well, i

el billonario mostro varios correos electronicos, en los que pecker, lo amenao con publicar fotos intimascon una pongamos todo en contexto y recapitulemos... the national enquirer saco a la luz en relacion extramatrimonial con la ex presentadora de television lauren sanchez , esto sucedio dias despues de que el dueqo de amazon y su esposa, anunciaron que se divorciaban despues de 25 aqos de matrimonio....a raiz de esa revelacion, bezos contrato a investigadores para saber como e habia filtrado esa informacion ahora en su blog personal...bezos escribio que en lugar ctorsion y el chdecid lo que le enviaron, a pesar del costo personal que le provocaba... aqui tenemos parte de lo quele enviaron que leo textualmente"...selfie debajo del cinturon...lo mas interesante es que una investigacion privada sugiere que la filtracion vino de una agencia del gobierno...en este episodio es importante saber, como contexto, que bezos es el dueqo de the washington post y el mismo dijo que es inevitable que ciertas personas poderosas que son objeto de cobertura constante por parte del post concluyan que el es