She cant lose that job. That does it for us tonight. Now it is time for the last word for lawrence odonnell. Im sorry i took your minute. It was a minute we wanted to give you, rachel. This is one of those nights where we had a plan and jeff bezos happened. This statement that hes released tonight is absolutely extraordinary, and i think it is a gigantic moment, actually, in the history of our Digital Communication, which everyone has known has been at risk for quite a while, that any one of us could be hacked. We could have private things revealed through stolen emails, stolen texts, that sort of thing. And here is someone that stands up and says, im not going to take it anymore and maybe it took the richest man in the world to do that. Right. And for him to say, listen, they appear to be freaking out by something that ive been looking into when it comes to them. Their potential political motivation in pursuing me in this way. Why did that set off ami into this panic that theyre trying to, apparently, in bezoss words blackmail or extort the richest man on earth. Did they think they would get away with it, no consequences . Something drove them to desperation. You sense they must be very nervous about the way federal prosecutors see the operations of the National Enquirer which has already come under fire in the Trumpmichael Cohen case in manhattan. They had to deal with prosecutors around those Campaign Finance felonies in order to enter into that nonprosecution agreement. Which means prosecutors know a lot about ami and their operations, including their operations that are considered to be federal crimes and for which somebody is about to go to prison and which the president himself has been implicated in. So they are in a spot, and they were desperate enough to try to do this to bezos. And i have no idea how this is going to end, but, boy, was this a surprise. And they might be in much worse legal trouble tonight. We will help to get through it all. Thank you. We do have a lot to cover tonight. We will have a special last word tonight about what is always, always the strangest speech that donald trump can give, and thats the one he gave today at the National Prayer breakfast. We will also be joined tonight by two fathers. Two fathers who are republican congressman tried to get kicked out of a hearing yesterday in the house of representatives. Those two fathers were at that hearing because their kids were killed in the massacre at margery stone man Douglas High School. He wanted them thrown out because of their reaction to what he had to say in that hearing. Those two fathers will join us tonight. But first, we have crossed a threshold tonight in the history of Digital Communication and the manipulation and theft of Digital Communication. Everything changed tonight because someone who has had his Digital Communication stolen decided to stand up to the thieves and say you cannot hurt me with what you have stolen from me. And it took the richest man in the world to do that. We live in an age where public figures like movie stars have had their Digital Communication hacked and private photographs distributed publically. We have seen north korea attack a movie studio, steal and publish all of its emails because north korea didnt like a movie the studio made. We have seen newspapers publish the information north korea stole. We have seen newspapers publish photos we now know were stolen by russia from Hillary Clintons campaign. We have seen journalism adrift for years now in an ethicsfree zone presuming that stolen Digital Communication is newsworthy. And none of the victims of these digital thefts have known what to do about it except to suffer the pain of the exposure of their private communications. And then came the National Enquirer which obtained stolen communications to and from jeff bezos. And jeff bezos said no more. He became the richest man in the world because 24 years ago he had an idea that became amazon. He is now the owner of the Washington Post and tonight jeff bezos did the bravest thing you can possibly do when confronted by people who have stolen Digital Communication. Instead of surrendering to what he now calls their attempts at extortion and blackmail, jeff bezos has published a letter, a statement, in which he details what has been stolen from him, the embarrassing material thats been stolen from him. And in the process, he condemns the National Enquirer for its gangsterlike approach to him and to their coverage in general. Jeff bezos published a statement tonight in which he said, rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, ive decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten. Attached to his statement were a series of written exchanges between people working from National Enquirer and a los angeles attorney. Dillon howard, an editor of the National Enquirer sent the email describing every stolen photograph of jeff bezos that the National Enquirer now possesses. In the last line of the email, Dillon Howard says, i hope common sense can prevail and quickly. The common sense that Dillon Howard and david pecker who runs the National Enquirer wanted to prevail was the jeff bezos team of investigators led by los angeles security expert gavin de becker would stop says it is a political motivated organization. It is a politically motivated publication. Also attached to jeff bezoss statement tonight is a letter from a lawyer in new york named jon fine. He is the deputy general counsel of the company that owns the National Enquirer. This is an email to martin singer, the lawyer in los angeles, and it is an email that could end jon fines career as a lawyer if it is adjudged to be, as jeff bezos says, an attempt at extortion and blackmail. It demands that jeff bezos and his team publically state that, quote, they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that amis coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces. And in exchange for that, for that statement, the letter says the National Enquirer agrees not to publish, distribute, share or describe unpublished texts and photos. And then jon fines email says in the case of a breach of the agreement by one or more of the bezos parties, American Media is released from its obligation under the agreement and may publish the unpublished materials. So that is attorney jon fine putting a threat in writing written in new york sent interstate to a lawyer in los angeles, possibly incurring federal criminal liability on the way in an extortion scheme. Jeff bezos decided he was not going to take it. Jeff bezos wrote, if, in my position, i cant stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can . These communications cement amis longearned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections and ignoring the tenants of true journalism. I wont 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. We have hurries to assemble the experts in this area from journalistic and legal perspective, including someone that spent 28 years at the National Enquirer. Were joined by manuel, who has been in the awkward position of covering this story for the Washington Post, which is owned by jeff bezos and has been covering it thoroughly and professional. Also tim obrian is with us. He has studied Donald Trumps relationship to david pecker. And joyce vance is here to cover the legal points for us. She is a former federal prosecutor. And were joined by jerry george who spent 28 years at the National Enquirer, including as the Los Angeles Bureau chief. Has david pecker ever been up against anyone like jeff bezos before . I think for the first time david pecker has met his match. We have finally gone through the looking glass, and we are way beyond yellow journalism. We are now in the area of the rico act. This is extortion. Yeah. Joyce vance, let me go straight to you on the legal points here because there is so much in here. Jeff bezos is very clearly saying this is extortion. This is blackmail. I read that email from a lawyer in new york to marty singer from los angeles, and i have never seen an email quite like that from lawyer to lawyer. It looks like our common understanding of what blackmail is, this kind of a threat. In federal law, there is a family of crimes under this umbrella of extortion and blackmail. But what they consist of at their core is this notion that ami would have to try to threaten in this case mr. Bezos into giving up some property in exchange for ami not doing damage to his reputation by releasing these photos. The legal fight is over whether what bezos is being asked to give up is actually property as the law defines it. But there could well be other crimes here. There could be hacking. There could be receiving stolen property. Other crimes we dont yet know enough to perceive here. It really looks as i think everyone agrees as though there is something here that is not right. There is two other jurisdictions involved here. There is new york state law that could have been violated by that lawyer. New york state bar procedures could have been violated. He could risk disbarment in new york state for this. Then there is california criminal liability that can be slightly different from new yorks, joyce. So there is plenty of things to study here legally. Thats right. There is federal law. There is state law. There are ethical obligations for lawyers. There is a lot that i think well be looking at over the next few days and weeks. No one has been covering this story more thoroughly than you have at the Washington Post. I just want to ask you at the top what has jeff bezos had to say about your coverage of him, the owner of your newspaper . We have no idea. We havent spoken with jeff bezos, and he hasnt been involved at all in our reporting, but we have spoken extensively with his security consultant, and hes provided us with some very interesting insights into the back stages of this whole drama, including the investigation that has taken place in which they have begun to believe, the bezos camp, that this publication by the National Enquirer might have been politically motivated. I would just add one other thing. You mentioned hacking at the top of the show. Gavin de becker told us that he does not believe that jeff bezoss phone was hacked. He thinks its possible that a Government Entity might have gotten a hold of his text messages. And jerry george let me go back to you because as the Los Angeles Bureau chief im sure you know of gavin de becker. He is the person people in los angeles turn to for security and personal protection. He has a large firm and provides all sorts of services. He has been doing this for a long time. There is no one im aware of in the country, in the private sector with more experience and resources in knowing how to handle an investigation like this. Well, gavin has had the reputation of being the best in the business for the past 25 years. So his involvement alone bespeaks a major concern. Yeah. And tim obrian, you have been studying Donald Trumps relationship to david pecker, who runs the National Enquirer. The idea, the idea that they were trying to, in effect, extort out of him a statement that the National Enquirer does not have a political agenda. Right. I mean, there is no one there is no one who could possibly sign their name to that statement. It is the motion corrupt publication in america. You know, two things i think worth pointing out here. Jeff bezos the National Enquirer already published a piece about jeff bezos and his extramarital affair, which relied on stolen personal property. Yes. Whether it was a federal agency that intercepted it or it was a hacker, information was stolen and put to use. Jeff bezos launched an investigation to find out what happened. The National Enquirer says to him, we are going to use more stolen information to prevent you from continuing an investigation of how we used previously stolen information to embarrass you. The second thing going on here is of course there is politics at work here. David pecker has a long standing relationship with donald trump. The National Enquirer has reportedly buried years of different stories about donald trump that contain embarrassing information about him. We know more recently, obviously, that pecker was involved with trumps Attorney Michael Cohen to bury stories about trumps relationships and sexual liaisons with Stormy Daniels and another woman. He is cooperating with a federal investigation in that. He weaponized prior to that the National Enquirers coverage in aid of Donald Trumps candidacy. When they say to jeff bezos, it is time to stop looking into this and its also time for you to say there arent politics involved, its they know on the face that both of those things are false fronts and bezos has the resources to say, no, were not going to do this. And jeff bezos is by donald trump a declared enemy of donald trump. There is always a political agenda with the National Enquirer. The entire newspaper, yeah. To go back to the Washington Post coverage of this, jeff bezos makes the point tonight in his statement that there is a saudi connection to this story. He says the posts essential and unrelated coverage of the murder of its journalist Jamal Khashoggi is unpopular in person circles. The National Enquirer, the company, has been trying to obtain saudi finance. And, so, that they have an interest in making life difficult for jeff bezos and hoping they can possibly also influence saudi coverage in the Washington Post. Well, its quite plain from looking at jeff bezoss letter that he published tonight that hes interested in what would be described as the saudi angle, whether that ends up developing and becoming a major part of the story i think it remains to be seen. But at this point it is still in the formative stages as far as this trajectory of this scandal. Jerry george, knowing david pecker and knowing the company and the way they operate, theyre in feed of money and financing. Theyre looking for saudi financing. What would they be willing to do to try to help the saudis in terms of their coverage in, say, the Washington Post . Well, ive mentioned earlier that the special issue that they would have in the spring touting saudi as the new Magic Kingdom was suspicious in itself in that three months later they acquired enough money to procure their biggest competitor. But i might add that, you know, as much as the world knows bezos as the worlds richest man and the founder of amazon and the owner of the Washington Post, to inquire of readers, jeff bezos isnt really a name. Jeff bezos doesnt really warrant the kind of cover that the they gave him. I doubt if 10 of National Enquirer readers even know who he is. So, i mean, i think that was suspicious in itself. Where does the story go from here . I think well keep digging like we do every other story. Well ask everybody questions and well find out every piece of information that we can. As they say, well turn every page, every single page. Thank you all for joining us. Areally appreciate it. And when we come back, the president s attacks on democrats and the congressional investigations continue, and they are increasing. Congressman Shawn Patrick maloney, the newest democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee will join us. And we now know how republicans will continue to use Donald Trumps wall in campaigns. They will blame every problem in america on the fact that we do not have a wall on the southern border. And in tonights last word, donald trump as preacher is the least convincing version of donald trump. That rocking chair would look great in our new house. Ahh, new house, eh . Well, you should definitely see how geico could help you save on homeowners insurance. Nice tip. Ill give you two bucks for the chair. Two . thats a victorian antique all right, how much for the recliner, then . Wait wait. How did that get out here . That is definitely not for sale is this a yard sale . If its in the yard then its. For sale. Oh, here we go. Geico. 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