Every minute is a lucrative one when it comes to Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, so he has no time to waste. However, the ongoing court case behind the National Enquirer obtaining explicit and graphic photos of the world-renowned businessman and allegedly using them to blackmail Jeff Bezos has spanned over a year since the story originally surfaced in Jan. 2019. While recent evidence has suggested that Jeff Bezos' girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez leaked his intimate photos to her brother, Michael Sanchez, Michael has decided to sue Bezos for defamation of character, according to TIME.
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Michael Sanchez is accusing Jeff Bezos of telling the media that it was him that gave the National Enquirer his nude photos and that Bezos' accusations have resulted in him struggling daily. Last year, Jeff Bezos reported in a blog post on Medium entitled, No Thank You, Mr. Pecker, that the Enquirer's parent company, AMI, allegedly paid Michael Sanchez a total of $200,000 for the texts, which included 'a naked bathroom selfie' and a 'below the belt selfie.'
Jeff Bezos' legal team believes that Sanchez is attempting to extort him with the impending lawsuit and wants the court to throw the entire case out. CNBC was able to obtain Bezos' lawyers claim that reads:
"Mr. Sanchez’s defamation claim fails the most basic of requirements: it fails to identify any instance in which Defendants, or even any news report, published or made any of the alleged statements about him."
The report continues:
"Extortion rears its head again in this lawsuit, this time not only aimed at Defendants but also directly threatening speech protected under the First Amendment.
By filing this lawsuit, Mr. Sanchez hopes to put himself back on the front pages and extract money from Defendants by leveraging the current media environment to harass them. But no matter what Michael Sanchez says or how many times he repeats himself, at the heart of his Complaint lies the same public controversy he helped generate and has tried to exploit—and from which he surreptitiously earned $200,000."
While the saga of who leaked Jeff Bezos' nudes continues, the Amazon CEO still has some competition out there gunning for his 'richest man in the world' title. Check out Jeff Bezos' Super Bowl LIV flex alongside Lizzo in the photo posted below.