The National Enquirer Pays to Leak Jeff Bezos Story

National enquirerUPDATED: 2019/03/19 12:00 PM

The story broke news in January 2019 that Jeff Bezos (Amazon billionaire) was having an affair with Lauren Sanchez Whitesell. The National Enquirer printed an 11-page spread detailing numerous intimate text messages between the couple and even drew in a greater audience by stating that they had incriminating nude images with Bezos. The question on everyone’s minds, however, is how did the National Enquirer come to possess these images?

To answer this question, The Wall Street Journal recently published an article discussing their investigation into the matter, presenting evidence that shows Lauren Sanchez Whitesell’s brother—Michael Sanchez—at the heart of the leaked texts and pictures. An unknown source spoke with the WSJ, stating that the National Enquirer paid Sanchez $200,000 in exchange for information on his sister’s affair with Bezos, including evidence of their secret relationship. Other news sources state that he gave up this information for an even heftier price tag of $250,000. In fact, the WSJ is not the first to point a finger at Sanchez, with other leading news sources, like The Daily Beast and Vanity Fair, citing Sanchez as the leak.

Bezos will not stop until he discovers who this source is. He stated in a personal essay on Medium “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…I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.” While the media focuses on Sanchez as the source of the leak, he has denied any involvement with providing information to the WSJ, saying in a recent Tweet that not only will he not dignify these rumors, but that news sources should instead be focusing on the recent horrific terrorist attacks that have taken place around the world.