National Enquirer pushes back on Bezos’s investigator, says girlfriend’s brother provided all materials

The National Enquirer on Sunday pushed back against Jeff Bezos’s investigative team, saying that all of its information about the Amazon CEO’s girlfriend came from her brother.

American Media Inc. (AMI), the Enquirer’s parent company, said in a statement that it got information about Bezos’s affair with Lauren Sanchez from Michael Sanchez, “who tipped the National Enquirer off to the affair on Sept. 10, 2018, and over the course of four months provided all of the materials for our investigation,” according to Reuters.

“There was no involvement by any third party whatsoever,” AMI added.

{mosads}An investigator hired by Bezos had said Saturday that Saudi Arabian officials hacked and gained access to the Amazon CEO’s phone.

“Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information,” Bezos’s security consultant, Gavin de Becker, wrote in a Daily Beast post.

De Becker added that it is “unclear to what degree” AMI “was aware of the details” of the Saudis hacking Bezos’s phone.

In January, the Enquirer posted a story with a series of text messages between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. Bezos was married at the time the texts were sent.

In February, Bezos accused the Enquirer and AMI of attempting to blackmail him over the messages prior to publishing the story. AMI denied the allegations.

Gavin de Becker & Associates did not immediately respond to a request from The Hill for comment on AMI’s explanation.