As questions run around Jeff Bezo's explosive proposal, the identity of tabloid leaker is verified
On Wednesday, Michael Sanchez declined to give CNN a record comment on whether he was leaking. He denied earlier that The Washington Post played a role in leaking details of the relationship between Bezos and his sister, and told The New York Post he would not appreciate such claims with an answer.
A representative of AMI told CNN on Wednesday that the company "refuses to comment on sources."
The suggestions as to whether Trump or Saudi Arabia might have a role in revealing the relationship have been untouched since Bezos first made them in a blog post last week describing his interaction with the national investigator.
In his blog post, Bezos wrote lumbering details in front of the reader, mentioning both Trump and Saudi Arabia.
Bezos wrote that his ownership of The Washington Post, which has covered both Trump and the Saudi government critically, was a "complex" for him.
In fact, Bezos suggested ̵[ads1]1; although he did not say it directly – that Saudis or Trump, or perhaps both, might have had a role in revealing their relationship with the National Enquirer.
But six days later Bezos has not provided any evidence to support these ideas. And while giving emails to support his allegation of extortion, the absence of evidence of the other explosive proposals has only increased interest in the case.
"American Media has not, or have we ever had, any editorial or financial ties to Saudi Arabia Arabia," a company spokesman told CNN earlier this week in response to questions in the case.
Addressing the idea that the inquiry investigation was somehow pursued by the Saudis or by AMI's desire to connect with the Saudis, a current high level executive at AMI told CNN Wednesday, "We all laugh that it has become a thing because it's a year old. Saudi never gave any money to the Enquirer. "
While de Becker said he was turning this information over to Bezos lawyers, he refused to disclose to the public any details of what his investigation found. The Daily Beast reported that it had undergone documents related to the investigation, but it was not clear whether the documents were from de Becker's investigation.
De Becker did not give CNN a post-comment, despite several requests. An Amazon representative also refused to comment and noted that the questions did not concern the company. Bezos has no other famous spokesmen representing him.
CNN asked de Becker and the Amazon spokesman was: Why did Bezos mention Saudis and Trump in his blog post? What were the findings of the Becker survey? Will Bezos share with the public information about the Becker survey?
In Bezos' first Thursday blog post, he shared an email from Dylan Howard, the chief institute's chieftain. Howard, in that email, outlined the various pictures he said the table "achieved during our news collection." These images included what Howard described as "under the belt selfie" – otherwise commonly known as a "d * ck pick" and other explicit images of both Lauren Sanchez and Bezos.
Michael Sanchez insisted on CNN on Tuesday – before CNN reported that he was the first source of the national commissioner – that he was told that the investigation "cleared" him with "some involvement" related to images involving Bezos' genitals. He said he was given the information by a third party with knowledge of the investigation and that he had not been told directly that he had been cleared of investigators.
"I have been told that the Amazon survey decided that I was not involved in leakage of d * ck pics because I never had access to any of the d * ck images," he told CNN.
Michael Sanchez also doubted the rigor of the Becker survey on Tuesday and told CNN that throughout the survey, de Becker never asked to investigate my phone, laptop or notes or identified me as an investigator. He suggested Bezos's suggestion that Saudis or Trump possibly play a role in leakage of the National Enquirer's text messages was an attempt to distract.
