This is my conspiracy theory, and I’m sticking to it.
Amazon/Washington Post billionaire Jeff Bezos is headed for divorce court, I’m sure you’ve heard. He’s the richest man in the world, with a net worth hovering around $137 billion. It looks to be the most expensive divorce in history, with his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie, standing to get half of his fortune. That means she could get as much as $66 billion based on the value of the company today.
And while there are some interesting and rather salacious details of the story – namely that Bezos was sexting So You Think You Can Dance/Extra/Good Day LA host Lauren Sanchez and whisking her around the world in his private jet – I think the most interesting part of the story is the one that isn’t being widely reported.
The reason the divorce is happening, and the reason you’ve been hearing about it, is because the National Enquirer was planning on printing an explosive cover story about Bezo’s affairs, and the couple wanted to get in front of the story.
via CNN
In a statement on Thursday, the magazine’s parent company, American Media Inc., suggested that its investigation prompted Bezos to go public with his divorce plans.“The National Enquirer has been doggedly investigating this story for four months and the extraordinary details and evidence uncovered by our team, and presented to Mr. Bezos’ representatives for comment early this week, underscores the kind of investigative reporting that the publication has long been known for,” a spokesman said.By the looks of the Enquirer’s new cover, which is scheduled to hit newsstands Thursday, it was ready to publish a story before Bezos issued a statement on Wednesday morning.The cover promises to show readers “the cheating photos that ended his marriage” with not one, not two, but “11 pages of exclusive photos.”
Pecker worked with Trump and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to squash embarrassing stories during the 2016 campaign (i.e, STORMY DANIELS and KAREN MCDOUGAL). At the same time, the tabloid played up positive stories about Trump and negative stories about his opponents on its cover.
After the election, the Trump-Enquirer collaboration continued. There were allegations — leveled by MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski — that the Enquirer was used as a weapon against Trump critics.
Last August, when Cohen pled guilty to campaign finance violations, he admitted to working with an unnamed media company CEO “at the request of the candidate” to squelch stories. That unnamed CEO is known to be Pecker.In December, prosecutors announced a non-prosecution agreement with National Enquirer parent company American Media Inc., effectively ruling out charges for the publisher, Pecker, and his top deputy Dylan Howard.This confirmed that the Enquirer had “flipped” on Trump, so to speak.According to the agreement, the company is obligated to cooperate with authorities and “disclose all information with respect to the activities of itself and its officers, agents, and employees concerning all matters” investigators inquire about for a period of three years or until prosecutions are completed.CNN’s recent review of the Enquirer’s cover stories showed that the tabloid suddenly stopped promoting Trump — or mentioning him at all — in April.
President Trump on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos divorcing his wife of 25 years: “Well, I wish him luck. I wish him luck. It’s going to be a beauty.” https://t.co/BAlTxqYvJB pic.twitter.com/Bfk0Jah9Oj
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 10, 2019
And here are a few of his anti-Bezos Twitter screeds.
(pic: Media Punch)
