George said he left the tabloid is 2013. “The financial hardships of the company were taking its toll,” he said.
AMI has not responded to CNBC’s request for comment on George’s assertions.
Trump has been a frequent critic of Bezos, the founder of Amazon who also personally owns The Washington Post. The president has used Twitter repeatedly to blast the e-commerce giant for not paying enough taxes and the newspaper of having a negative bias against his administration.
In a bombshell blog post Thursday, Bezos accused the National Enquirer’s publisher of threatening to post sexual pictures that the billionaire had texted to his mistress. He accused AMI of blackmail and extortion.
Amazon has not responded to CNBC’s requests for comment.
AMI denied Bezos’ claims, saying in a statement, “American Media believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos,” adding, however, the board determined “it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims.”
Stu Zakim, a former spokesman for AMI, told CNBCon Friday that he also suspects the Enquirer story was politically motivated. “There was a falling out, we thought, between Pecker and Trump when all of sudden the National Enquirer stopped covering him as lovingly as they did.”
As for the White House, a press official told CNBC he’s not sure if Trump is aware of the situation, adding he’s “not going to get into a conversation about something between Jeff Bezos and a tabloid magazine.”
WATCH: Former National Enquirer insider on Bezos’ blackmail accusations
from Update News Zone http://bit.ly/2So2v3l
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