Last Thursday, Jeff Bezos published a juicy, scandalous, conspiratorial essay in Medium. Bezos accused David Pecker and the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him – Pecker wanted Bezos to shut down his private investigation into how the Enquirer got all of his texts and selfies or the Enquirer would publish more of the texts and selfies. Bezos’ marriage is already over, and he’s reportedly very much in love with Lauren Sanchez, his mistress/jumpoff. So, several questions were out there: did someone hack Bezos’ phone, and if so, who? Was all of this about politics, and was there a direct connection between Trump, Pecker and the Bezos texts? Well, the Daily Beast has *some* answers. Maybe.
The brother of Jeff Bezos’ mistress, Lauren Sanchez, supplied the couple’s racy texts to the National Enquirer, multiple sources inside AMI, the tabloid’s parent company, told The Daily Beast. Another source who has been in extensive communication with senior leaders at AMI confirmed that Michael Sanchez first supplied Bezos’ texts to the Enquirer.
AMI has previously refused to identify the source of the texts, but a lawyer for the company strongly hinted at Sanchez’s role during a Sunday morning interview on ABC.
“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. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez,” attorney Elkan Abramowitz told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Asked directly whether Sanchez was the source, Abramowitz said, “I can’t discuss who the source was. It’s confidential within AMI.”
As The Daily Beast was the first to report, Bezos launched his own investigation into who leaked the texts. The security consultant he hired, Gavin de Becker, has repeatedly declined to disclose the findings of his investigation, including whether or not it had determined Sanchez was the culprit. But he did say the probe is over and the results will be turned over to the authorities.
“Our investigation into who initially provided texts to the National Enquirer, and why it was done—that investigation is now complete. We have turned our conclusions over to our attorneys for referral to law enforcement,” de Becker told The Daily Beast on Sunday. “Our investigation into what the National Enquirer and [publisher] AMI did after they received the initial texts—that investigation is ongoing,” he added.
There’s something I’ve been wondering about for days, ever since Jeff Bezos did the Medium essay. People keep going on and on about how Jeff Bezos is the richest man and he has the best technology, so it would be super-difficult for anyone – or any government – to hack him. But wouldn’t a good spy agency (or random hacker) know that? Wouldn’t they go for the “weaker link,” which is Lauren Sanchez and her phone and communications? What I’m saying is that I believe the texts and photos came from Lauren Sanchez’s phone, not Jeff Bezos. Now, did Lauren’s brother simply pick up her phone and copy everything? Or was her phone hacked by her brother? I really don’t know. No one does. But yeah, I think it’s worth paying closer attention to the brother.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
