Blackmail Prime

Bezos Hits Back:  First some backstory, Amazon Chief Jeff Bezos, the multi-billionaire entrepreneur who also owns the Washington Post has been having an extramarital affair with a woman named Lauren Sanchez.  We know far too much about this relationship and how it may or may not be responsible for the break-up of his marriage because the lurid details of the affair have been splashed across the papers, most notably the AMI owned National Enquirer but also the NY Post and the business press where the focus has been less on the lurid details and more on the impact that a Bezos divorce would have on the value of Amazon stock. Furious about the attention on his personal affairs and suspicious about the motivation behind the stories, Bezos hired a top investigator to get to the bottom of who had hacked his phone and obtained his personal “sexts.” Last night he confirmed that his belief that the invasion into his personal life was a politically motivated hit job is correct by posting a rather stunning blog on Medium.com.  In that blog Bezos provides evidence in the form of a series of emails between the chief content office of AMI and an attorney for his investigator that show that AMI, led by long time Trump friend David Pecker, tried to blackmail him by threatening to release a pile of very sexually explicit pictures of him and Sanchez if he refused to end his investigation and stop suggesting that AMI and the National Enquirer’s coverage of his marital woes is “politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”  Bezos went on to write that AMI’s attempt to extort him “cements” their “long-earned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges” adding “of course I don’t want personal photos published but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks and corruption.”   As to the political motivation, its hardly a secret that Pecker’s friend Trump, hates the coverage that he gets from the Washington Post particularly the paper’s focus on his scandals, financial improprieties and their refusal to let the story about the brutal death of their journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, at the hands of Trump’s Saudi allies, most notably Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, fade away.  With regard to Trump, it’s likely that Pecker who managed to extricate himself from criminal liability for squashing the campaign period stories about Trump’s relationships with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal by spilling all he knew to federal prosecutors may have been trying to earn his way back into Trump’s good graces by damaging Bezos’ reputation.  On the Khashoggi front, yesterday the New York Times reported that in 2017 the Crown Prince told one of his top aides that he would use “a bullet” on the journalist if he didn’t end his criticism of Saudi Arabia and return to the Kingdom, presumably to get his “punishment.”  A few things are clear, Bezos isn’t backing down and the Khashoggi story isn’t going away and at least for now, no one has successfully blackmailed anyone at the NY Times, although if Ronan Farrow is to be believed, and he should be, he too has been subjected to blackmail threats.

Investigatory Front:  In response to House Intel Chair Adam Schiff’s announcement about his committee’s expanded investigation into many things Trump, Trump went on one of his twitter rampages yesterday, tweeting “So now Congressman Adam Schiff announces, after having found zero Russian Collusion, that he is going to be looking at every aspect of my life, both financial and personal, even though there is no reason to be doing so.”  Disingenuously adding “Never happened before! Unlimited Presidential Harassment...The Dems and their committees are going ‘nuts.’ The Republicans never did this to President Obama, there would be no time left to run government. I hear other committee heads will do the same thing. Even stealing people who work at White House! A continuation of Witch Hunt!” The “stealing people” refers to the recent hiring by Schiff’s committee of a few former members of the national security staff, something that really seems to be riling Trump up even more than usual, which could be a problem for his blood pressure which is due to be checked today during his annual physical.  In any case, Trump’s intimidation tactics aren’t working, if anything they seem to be emboldening Schiff and his Democratic colleagues.  Today, the House Judiciary Committee will host Acting Attorney General Whitaker.  Following a series of squabbles yesterday during which Whitaker’s handlers threatened to keep him away unless Committee Chair Nadler backed down from a threat to subpoena him, Nadler backed down a little and Whitaker agreed that he will show up.  Nadler is expected to ask Whitaker a number of questions concerning his discussions with Trump in an effort to determine whether or not he overshared information about the Mueller investigation, whether he has been trying to impede the investigation at Trump’s direction and how someone as incompetent as him got his job in the first place.  Whitaker is likely to duck and dodge as much possible.  In any case he won’t be Acting Attorney General for much longer, the nomination of his replacement, AG in waiting William Barr, was voted out of committee yesterday.  Despite Democratic pushback, Barr is expected be confirmed by the full Senate next week.  On the testimony front, former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen had been due to testify this week but his testimony has been put off until the end of the month “in the interest of the Mueller investigation.”  Hmmm.

Other News:  Things in Virginia remain murky.  No politicians have stepped down yet and now at least one Republican, a senior State Senator, is getting some heat for having served as managing editor of Virginia Military Institute’s 1968 yearbook which includes photos of students wearing Blackface and people holding Confederate flags as well as “racial slurs like the N-word and Asian slurs used to identify a student from Thailand.”  Last night, Virginia’s Legislative Black Caucus again called for Governor Northam to resign, but stopped short of calling for Lieutenant Governor Fairfax or Attorney General Herring to step down. They said the sexual-assault allegation against Fairfax must be “thoroughly investigated.” They also said that while they appreciated Herring’s “candor” in admitting to wearing Blackface, they “await further action on his part to reassure the citizens of the Commonwealth of his fitness for leadership.” It’s though that other Democrats might follow the group’s cues.  For her part presidential candidate Kamala Harris has weighed in saying that the accusations against Fairfax are credible and deserving of further investigation.  Shifting gears, remember when Senator Susan Collins said that she was confident that abortion rights would be preserved because of precedent.  Well she was correct, but for the wrong reason.  Last night the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to temporarily block a Louisiana law that could have left the state with only one doctor able to perform abortions.   Citing the precedent of an earlier court decision against a similar law, Chief Justice Roberts joined the liberal wing of the party even though he had voted against the earlier law.  Newest Justice Kavanaugh sided with the anti-abortion wing of the court.  So much for his promise to Senator Collins.