Ronan Farrow had a message for Jeff Bezos on Thursday: Me, too.
Farrow, whose journalistic efforts have detailed sexual misconduct accusations against the likes of Les Moonves and Harvey Weinstein, took to Twitter on Thursday to express solidarity with Amazon boss Bezos, after Bezos said that he had received a blackmail threat from National Enquirer parent company AMI.
In response to a tweet from Bezos on Thursday, Farrow tweeted, “I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar ‘stop digging or we’ll ruin you’ blackmail efforts from AMI.”
Farrow added, “(I did not engage as I don’t cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting.)”
TheWrap has reached out to a spokesman for AMI for comment on Farrow’s tweet.
On Thursday, Amazon CEO Bezos accused AMI of trying to blackmail him into dropping an investigation into how the tabloid obtained his personal text messages and photos with Lauren Sanchez, with whom he was reported to have had an affair.
In a lengthy Medium post, Bezos said that people working for David Pecker, the chairman and CEO of the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., threatened to publish the intimate photos if he refused to cooperate.
Bezos went on to say that the tabloid tried to extort him and his security boss, Gavin de Becker, into issuing a public statement saying that AMI didn’t have a political agenda when it pursued a story about Bezos and Sanchez.
“In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we ‘have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces,’” Bezos wrote.
A rep for AMI didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on Bezos’ accusations.
“Nothing I might write here could tell the National Enquirer story as eloquently as their own words,” Bezos wrote. He then posted an email in which the company threatened to release a photo of his penis, among other photos.
Last month, The National Enquirer published purported details of Bezos’ personal life from before the Amazon CEO filed for a divorce from his wife. The Enquirer also published leaked text messages between Bezos and Sanchez.
Bezos hired an investigator to find out how the texts and photos found their way to the tabloid, and whether the publication was seeking revenge for reporting done by the Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos.
Read Farrow’s tweet below.
I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar “stop digging or we’ll ruin you” blackmail efforts from AMI. (I did not engage as I don’t cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting.) https://t.co/kHQdWIkVjV
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) February 8, 2019