[Zain Asher, Host, Quest Means Business:] Hello everyone, I'm Zain Asher, coming up in the next half hour of QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, Woody Allen is suing Amazon of the claims it breached a big contract. And we'll go inside the so-called cult of Facebook as the company launches its 15th birthday. But first though, these are the headlines we are following for you at this hour. A deadly fire has struck the Youth Team Center for one of Brazil's biggest football clubs. According to state-run media, fire tore through dormitory as players were sleeping at the training ground for the Flamengo Football Club. At least, ten people were killed and three others are injured. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Thailand's king has denounced his oldest sister's candidacy for prime minister, he calls the 67-year-old princess' run for office extremely inappropriate and against Thai world traditions. Her bid to become prime minister could upend a political landscape in the country. A fiery hearing just wrapped up on Capitol Hill. Donald Trump's acting Attorney General was grilled by a House Committee for many questions focusing on his oversight of the Russia investigation. He testified he hasn't spoken to the president about the probe, but wouldn't answer if he agrees with Mr. Trump that it's a witch-hunt. All right, let's return now to our top story. Jeff Bezos' extraordinary accusations against the "National Enquirer", its parent company "AMI" and its CEO David Pecker. Bezos say he won't participate in AMI's blackmail, corruption or political favors. Instead, the world's richest man says I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out. Here's what he's uncovered so far. First, potential connections between Saudi Arabia and AMI. Jeff Bezos says an investigation into those links seemed to hit a particular nerve with Mr. Pecker. Second, connections to President Trump, we already knew President Trump was a long-time friend of David Pecker and a beneficiary of AMI's coverage. In the e-mails that Mr. Bezos published, AMI's counsel demanded that Bezos deny that AMI's coverage was influenced by political forces. And third, other targets of blackmail by AMI. The journalist Ronan Farrow said "AMI" tried to blackmail him in an effort to stop him from reporting on links between "AMI" and President Trump. And this is all happening, of course, in the wake of the murder of that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Alex Marquardt is in Washington for us, Michelle Kosinski is there as well. So Alex, just walk us through the extent for us in detail. What exactly is the connection between "AMI" and the Saudis?
[Alex Marquardt, Cnn Senior Correspondent:] Well, this is part of the allegation that what Pecker and "AMI" did here was part of a political attack. And so essentially, it has two parts. And what is being alleged here by Bezos is that, one, that because Trump and the Saudis are so closely aligned, that they would carry they would do an expose like this. And the second part is he's alleging that Pecker has close ties with the Saudis because they he needed funding. And one example that he gave is there was a White House dinner and he brought a high-level of Saudi who had connections to the royal family. So this is part of his larger allegation that this huge expose that "The National Enquirer" ran about Bezos' affair was part of was politically motivated. And if you go if you play that out, and he doesn't actually put this in his lengthy block post, you can see evidence of those very close ties between "AMI" and the Saudis. For example, last year, when Mohammad Bin Salman; the Crown Prince was coming to the U.S. for the first time, they put out a 97-page, essentially promotional magazine that was just fawning all over the Crown Prince and his vision for Saudi Arabia. Now the Saudis denied of course that they had any connection to that. But the "Associated Press" has reported that, in fact, embassy officials here in D.C. got advanced copies. And then there's the Khashoggi situation where the "Washington Post" which Jeff Bezos obviously owns has not only lost one of its one of its star columnist, but it has gone on to accuse as has the rest of the mainstream media including Cnn of reporting that the CIA and other intelligence agencies believe that, that was done at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. So essentially, Zain, what's being alleged here by Bezos is that the that "AMI" has cushy ties with the Saudis for their own reasons, but also because the Trump administration is very much in bed with the Saudis. And there's this long history between Trump and AMI. Now, we have heard from Adel al-Jubeir, who is the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is in D.C. today. He said that there was no evidence of any sort of connection between the Saudis and "AMI" or that they put any sort of pressure on "AMI" to put out pro Saudi stories Zain.
[Asher:] Alex Marquardt, stand by, I want to bring in Michelle Kosinski. Michelle, something interesting happened today. The White House is actually supposed to submit a report to Congress about the killing and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. And now they're not doing that, why not?
[Michelle Kosinski, Cnn Senior Diplomatic Correspondent:] Right, well, they say that they have the discretion to do that, which legally is true. But you look at the pressure that's been on them here. I mean, Congress can't force the White House to do certain things like issue sanctions. There is a separation of powers under the American constitution. So yes, there is a division there. Congress can't say, generally to the White House, you must do this even when there's a law that exists, that says something to that effect. But the point of it is, it can certainly pressure the White House to the point that everyone looking at this says, well, why not? You have the CIA determining that the Crown Prince ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. You have the Senate voting unanimously that they condemn the Crown Prince for this murder, and they're urging the White House to take a look at this. So Congress introduced this law calling the Global Magnitsky Act, the White House within 120 days is supposed to submit a report, even just saying yes or no, we believe the Crown Prince committed a human rights violation here in this murder. And yes or no, we're going to sanction him and why? But the White House has said, well, we reserve the right to decline to do this when appropriate. Now, that is the same kind of language that President Obama used when he signed this very law into effect. So, he himself disagreed with the constitutionality of Congress, forcing the White House to issue a report like this. So, yes, there are legal issues with that aspect of it, it seems like the White House is in its right to decline. But there's this big question mark hanging over it. If the CIA believes that the Crown Prince was behind this murder, why does the White House so much not want to say the same thing?
[Asher:] And that's a very interesting question a lot of people are asking that. Michelle Kosinski live for us, Alex Marquardt, appreciate you both coming on, thank you. So add all of this to the pile of Jeff Bezos' problems, Woody Allen is suing Amazon as well. There's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, next.