National Enquirer Publisher Asked Justice Department for Advice on Saudi Connection

[Yosemito]

Source: Wall Street Journal

The dust-up between Amazon.com Inc. AMZN +0.03% founder Jeff Bezos and National Enquirer parent American Media LLC has raised questions about the media company’s connections to Saudi Arabia.

American Media has had plenty of contacts with Saudi Arabia in recent years, including seeking financial backing from Saudi investors to fund acquisitions and producing a magazine celebrating the country’s new crown prince.

It also sought advice last year from the U.S. Justice Department over whether the publisher should register as a foreign agent, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The issue of the ties came up last week when Mr. Bezos took to the internet to push back against what he said was an extortion attempt by the National Enquirer against him over an extramarital affair that the tabloid reported on last month featuring photos and texts. He said he launched his own probe into how the publication obtained his texts as well as its motives and wrote that the “Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve.”

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-enquirer-publisher-asked-justice-department-for-advice-on-saudi-connection-11549908996?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/XEw7WkdSrH

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This is huge.
National Enquirer even created a magazine exclusively for the purpose of kissing the Prince's ass
NE also looked for money from the Saudis.
Then all of a sudden NE obtains naked pics of Khashoggi's former boss in the Washington Post (Bezos) who is critical if the Prince.
The plot thickens.

[empedocles]

1. The plots seem to thicken with innumerable dots.

[watoos]

2. There are more people involved than the lover and her brother.

How much money did Pecker get from the Saudis?

[safeinOhio]

3. It's too easy, 3 words

"follow the money". Should be our nations motto and printed on all of our money.

[displacedtexan]

4. The NE asked Trump's Justice Dept about registering as a foreign agent?

If it weren't so damned horrible, I'd laugh.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. It sounds to me like

the circulation has probably taken a huge hit and they are essentially being "sold" to the Saudis in order to stay in business.

[UpInArms]

6. Report: National Enquirer publisher asked Justice Department if it needed to register as foreign age

New York (CNN Business) Not long after it published a glossy magazine touting Saudi Arabia and its crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, American Media Inc. — otherwise best known as the company behind the National Enquirer — appears to have gone to the Justice Department with a question: Had the fawning publication made American Media a foreign agent?

In his blog post last week accusing American Media (AMI for short) of trying to blackmail him, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also alluded to a "Saudi angle" involving the company, as if he was leaving breadcrumbs for journalists and prosecutors to follow.

Now, federal prosecutors are looking into whether AMI may have in its dealings with Bezos violated an immunity deal it struck last year. And on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that AMI sent a letter to the Justice Department last year requesting an opinion about whether it needed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The law requires people and companies that are "agents of a foreign principal," working on behalf of a foreign government or political party, to register with the U.S. government and label its information accordingly. The law was originally enacted to combat Nazi propaganda in the 1930s.

AMI reportedly inquired about the act last year after it published the promotional magazine about Saudi Arabia and bin Salman.

The ad-free magazine was sold on newsstands. Its fawning portrayal of Saudi Arabia as "the magic kingdom" has been described by some observers as propaganda.

More at https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/02/11/media/national-enquirer-owner-justice-department/index.html

Seems that Pecker has been poking in some strange places

[GulfCoast66]

7. No wonder the NE needs Saudi money. No need to read the rag for crazy, made up stories...

What with Fox News filling their historical role.