Extortion and blackmail - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos goes public against U.S. tabloid "The National Enquirer; " Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker Will Testify Before The House Judiciary Committee After A Tense Back And Forth Between Congressional Democrats And The Justice Department; In Venezuela, Two Aid Trucks Have Arrived On The Colombian Side Of The Border
JEFF BEZOS, FOUNDER AND CEO, AMAZON: It doesn't get much more explosive than this.</s>WILL RIPLEY, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN (voice over): Extortion and blackmail - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos goes public against U.S. tabloid "The National Enquirer."</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, LEGAL ANALYST, CNN: He feels, apparently, that there was political motivation.</s>RIPLEY (voice over): Escaping ISIS.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am afraid, all I have left is my daughter and son.</s>RIPLEY (voice over): People recount horror stories of life under siege, but some remember it a little differently.</s>DURA AHMED, CANADIAN NATIONAL LIVING IN SYRIA: You're there, you're eating Pringles and Twix.</s>RIPLEY (voice over): And inside Facebook.</s>ALEX STAMOS, FORMER CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER, FACEBOOK: The truth is, there is a bit of a "Game of Thrones" culture among the executives. Vidd2</s>RIPLEY (voice over): What's it like working for Mark Zuckerberg and why are some so afraid to speak out?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a career impact where you might get blacklisted and you're not going to be get hired.</s>RIPLEY (on camera): Hey, I'm Will Ripley in Hong Kong in for Kristie Lu Stout on this Friday. Welcome to "News Stream." The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos is accusing the publisher of "The National Enquirer," AMI of blackmail and extortion. In an explosive new blog post, Bezos provides what he says are e-mail threats from AMI executives. Bezos dropped this bombshell accusing the American tabloid of threatening to release his compromising photos and texts if he didn't call off his own investigation of the tabloid. The world's richest man has been sparing no expense trying to figure out how the "Enquirer" obtained other private photos and texts involving him and his alleged mistress and he wants to know why they did it. Bezos's long time security consultant told "The Washington Post," he thinks the "Enquirer's" reporting was politically motivated. Bezos is the owner of "The Washington Post" and he says the "Enquirer" was threatening further humiliation if Bezos didn't go public and state that their expose was not politically motivated. Now, his blog post is titled, "No thank you, Mr. Pecker." He is talking about this man, AMI's Chairman and CEO, David Pecker. Now, his name has become public because of his association with President Donald Trump. Pecker was granted immunity in a Federal investigation into Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen. In exchange, Pecker agreed to provide Federal prosecutors information on hush money deals. Pecker is also known on the international stage. Bezos wrote that Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions that they have taken on behalf of the Saudi government. So much to impact here. Joining me now from New York, CNN political analyst John Avlon and CNN's chief media correspondent and host of "Reliable Sources," Brian Stelter, and it's great to have both of you here. Brian, I want to start with you. What could make the publisher of the "National Enquirer" so nervous that they would threaten to go nuclear on Jeff Bezos and even put it in writing if he doesn't call off his private investigation?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Right, that's exactly the question we've asked American media, we've asked Pecker and so far they've had no response at all to these incredible claims from Bezos. Look, it is remarkable that Bezos is publishing the e-mails, at least, one side of the e-mails so you can see what American media was allegedly proposing. They wanted to shut down Bezos's investigation into the "Enquirer's" leaks, into the "Enquirer's" probes and they wanted to shut it down so badly that they said if you put out a statement saying this was not politically motivated, then we will make all of your embarrassing photos and text messages disappear. You know, we're seeing the seedy underbelly of the tabloid culture here, and how the "Enquirer" apparently works. Others have accused the "Enquirer" of blackmail in the past, but the stakes here are so much higher because this involves the richest person in the world. Apparently, Bezos believes and knows he can afford the embarrassment. He can afford the risk, and so he's exposed this blackmail attempt in pure daylight.</s>RIPLEY: John Avlon, I want to read you a portion of Bezos' blog post. It says, "My ownership of "The Washington Post" is a complexifier for me. It is unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience "Washington Post" news coverage will wrongly conclude that I am their enemy." You know, Bezos says AMI was blackmailing him to publicly say that "The Washington Post" reporting and the "Enquirer's" reporting was not politically motivated. So as the former editor-in-chief of the "Daily Beast," do you see a journalistic line being crossed here?</s>JOHN AVLON, POLITICAL ANALYST, CNN: Absolutely. This is not anything that lines up with anything resembling journalistic best practices, let alone ethics. You know, what Bezos is saying that when you're a publisher, when you own a news organization, you sometimes get blamed for things that if you're good at your job and not try to interfere with the editorial process, that you have nothing to do with. But what the executives at AMI, Dylan Howard, the chief content officer who wrote the e-mail threatening Mr. Bezos.</s>AVLON: And his general counsel, Jon P. Fine, who backed it up are doing is not anything in line with journalistic ethics even though at the end of Howard's e-mail, he tries to wave out, sort of carry out a fig leaf of ethics to say, "This is an e-mail that no editor would like to send. Let's hope cooler heads prevail." But don't let the fancy words mistake you for what this is. This is a threat, this is extortion, this is blackmail and it's tied up with the President of the United States in trying to get the publisher of "The Washington Post," who happens to be the world's richest man, to deny there's any political motivation to the leaking of their text messages. This story is significant. It is going to get worse as more information comes out and it is outside the bounds of anything we've recognized. If anything deserve to be called fake news, this does, this organization does.</s>RIPLEY: And Brian, a lot of lawyers are now debating whether or not this fits the legal definition of extortion and blackmail, but what does this mean for the "Enquirer" and its parent company, and also for David Pecker's immunity deal?</s>STELTER: The company has been in a precarious position because of these Michael Cohen dealings, these hush money payments that were brokered during the 2016 election. So you go back to the campaign - you go back to the campaign days, the "Enquirer" was one of Trump's biggest boosters, one of Donald Trump's biggest supporters. Burying bad news about Trump and promoting bad news about his rivals. That has continued after election day, the "Enquirer" continued to promote Trump up until the day Michael Cohen's office was raided and the hush money payments began to be exposed. The "Enquirer" apparently flipped on Trump. Pecker apparently flipped on Trump, so you wonder now that we've heard about Bezos and this story is, whether the "Enquirer" and Pecker were trying to get back in President Trump's good graces, or trying to investigate one of Trump's enemies, Jeff Bezos in order to show Trump that they had his back. Because that is a part of what's going on here. Bezos and Trump -- there has been a back and forth for years, Trump hate the fact that Bezos owns "The Washington Post" so you have to wonder about the Trump connection in this story especially given Bezos has hints about that in his blog post. He refer to what he calls the Saudi angle referring to the "Enquirer's" parent company trying to take on Saudi money, promoting the Saudi Crown Prince and of course, we all know about President Trump's cozy relationship with the Saudis. So there's a lot of layers here. Every time you peel back the onion, you see more and more to this story, but at its core, it's about an incredibly powerful man, Jeff Bezos, rejecting a blackmail attempt and revealing how this shady world sometimes works.</s>RIPLEY: And John, Jeff Bezos, he owns one of the world's most powerful newspapers. What do you make of his decision to go public in this way? With a personal blogpost?</s>AVLON: I think that's actually profound because he's trying to create a degree of separation between his own personal shakedown attempt that he is dealing with and the outlet he runs. And to also underscore just how much there is a separation, a legitimate news organizations between the personal lives and personal views of even the publisher and the owner and the work the journalists do day in and day out. Something that Donald Trump and other critics don't begin to understand. And I think, we sometimes lose sight of the fact how unusual it is for the President of the United States to be attacking the publisher of "The Washington Post" and the questions that are raised by this. As Brian just laid out, is it just whether or not David Pecker and AMI actually undid their agreement? But the fact they were trying to cover for the President as well as themselves, and the Saudi angle that Mr. Bezos raises with some excellent reporting about basically a supermarket tabloid glossy by promoting Saudi Arabia, that appeared suddenly, that was obviously a pay to play deal, it really raises questions about these relationships and what strings are trying to be pulled. This may be standard operating procedure inside AMI. It's not in any legitimate news organization and this deserves to have the doors blown off.</s>RIPLEY: John Avlon, Brian Stelter, more to come with this story. Thanks for being with us.</s>STELTER: Yes.</s>AVLON: Thanks.</s>RIPLEY: Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the next hour after a tense back and forth between Congressional Democrats and the Justice Department. Democrats want to press Whitaker on two subjects; first, his decision not to recuse himself from overseeing Robert Mueller's Russia investigation despite his past public rebuke of that probe; and second, his conversations with President Trump about the Russia investigation. CNN congressional reporter Lauren Fox joins me now live from Washington. Lauren, Congressional Democrats clearly have a lot of questions for the acting Attorney General. How do you see this showdown playing out?</s>LAUEN FOX, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, CNN: Well, Will, we didn't even know if Matthew Whitaker would appear before this Committee yesterday afternoon. There was this very tense back and forth between the Committee and the Justice Department about a subpoena and whether or not it would be used if Matthew Whitaker refused to answer some of those key questions that you pointed out.</s>FOX: Now, President Trump is very confident that Matthew Whitaker is going to do a stellar job today. Here is what he said about Mr. Whitaker's testimony.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should Matthew Whitaker testify tomorrow, Mr. President?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He is an outstanding person. I would say if he did testify, he'd do very well. He is an outstanding person, a very, very fine man. Thank you all very much.</s>FOX: Now, Will, you know, one thing to be watching today is exactly how Democrats ask these questions. You know, the fireworks involved here may be more substantive than the answers that they get from Matthew Whitaker. We do know that, you know, he is concerned about answering any questions about his conversations that he's had directly with the President, whether or not he claims that executive privilege, all something worth watching today at that House Judiciary hearing.</s>RIPLEY: Lauren, is this a taste of things to come? I mean, this is the first high profile oversight hearing since Democrats retook the House. Clearly, it won't be the last.</s>FOX: Clearly, and I think this week has been full of some on blockbuster hearings. There is this hearing today with Matthew Whitaker. But yesterday, there were two very notable subcommittee hearings in the House of Representatives. One of them on family separation policy at the southern border, another one on the precedent of getting the President's tax returns. That is another hot button issue that Democrats are going to be pursuing up here on Capitol Hill. So I think this is a taste of things to come, and this is really just coming days after the President's State of the Union address, of course, a moment that typically tries to unify the country. So a lot of division up here on Capitol Hill and definitely more to come when it comes to probing the President -- Will.</s>RIPLEY: To say the least, Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, thanks for joining us.</s>FOX: Thank you.</s>RIPLEY: I want to turn now to the escalating crisis in Venezuela. Two aid trucks have arrived on the Colombian side of the border. You can see them right there. A U.S. officials says they are carrying food. They are carrying medical supplies for Venezuela. But President Nicolas Maduro's government has been blocking international aid deliveries. Now, his rival, opposition leader, the self-proclaimed interim President, Juan Guaido wants the military to let those supplies in and that plea is echoed by the U.S. State Department.</s>ELIOT AGRAMS, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE ON VENEZUELA, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: There are dire needs, and I think many people, again, in the Venezuelan Army feel those needs for themselves and their families. So we're hopeful that that at least initial decision on the part of Maduro can be turned around if he sees a real demand on the part of the people of Venezuela. Let it in. That's all we're asking. Let it in.</s>RIPLEY: It is one thing to hear from government officials, but CNN's Isa Soarez has been hearing directly from the people who are suffering because of this and she joins me live from Cucuta on the Colombian-Venezuela border. Isa, I have been watching your excellent reporting. You've been bringing us these stories. They are so heartbreaking. Do you see this actually getting worse?</s>ISA SOAREZ, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, that's really the question, Will, that so many people have been asking me day in and day out, as I stand on the main pedestrian bridge. So just to give you a sense of where we are right now, we are roughly about two minute' walk from that Simon Bolivar Bridge, the main pedestrian bridge that you've seen me talk to people the last couple of days. So what happens is, people come out of this bridge before they start doing their shopping for those groceries, for those basic staples. They come to Western Union. And this is early. It is 8:00 here. Have a look at the queue already. It starts right here. There is a bit of a gap, people queueing in already to wait, sitting down, waiting. But if I can get Jose just to turn the camera around and I'm just going to snake through here. [Speaking foreign language]. And if we snake, have a look at this queue. It's the 8:00 hour and there's already a long queue snaking around the corner on to the main road for people to try and get money. Now, what we know from speaking to people here, Will, is that the majority of them are coming here to get money from relatives really, that have deposited into the bank account. So what happens is, relatives are all over the world -- Spain, Argentina, Chile -- that's what majority have been telling me. They deposit it into their accounts. They come and pick it up in pesos and then some of them actually go and buy groceries, others actually use it to go elsewhere. Let me ask -- come on over here, Jose -- let me ask some of these people what exactly they're doing. Good morning. [Speaking foreign language]. I'm asking what she's doing with the money. To buy food. [Speaking foreign language]. How often do you do this, I'm asking her. Every 15 days. Sending her money from abroad from Peru. So she has relatives sending her money from Peru in order for her to buy food. [Speaking foreign language]. The same. Together.</s>SOARES: [Speaking foreign language]. Also food. [Speaking foreign language]. Good morning. [Speaking foreign language]. Also from Peru. So it gives you a sense really how people are dependent, so dependent on family to send them money abroad because, obviously because of hyperinflation, Will, there is just not enough money -- very little they can buy in fact back in Venezuela. I spoke to two individuals yesterday, one was going to Chile, the other one was going to Argentina. They are coming with their suitcases packed. They collect their money and then they go, whichever way they can. Coached, taxi -- whatever, finding a way to get out of Venezuela which is of course, as you've been seeing, a real humanitarian crisis unfolding in front of our very eyes -- Will.</s>RIPLEY: And eventually, family members run out of money to send and then what? Isa Soarez, thank you so much for keeping us up to date and we will keep checking back with you there from the Colombian-Venezuelan border. A deadly fire at the youth training center for one of Brazil's biggest football clubs. According to state-run media, fire tore through a dormitory where players were asleep. This is the training ground for the Flamingo Football Club. At least 10 people were killed, three others injured. The cause of that fire is being investigated right now. Next on "News Stream," lured into a war zone against her will.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's like, you - you have to come here. He's like, it's obligatory for you to come here. You have no choice.</s>RIPLEY: A so-called Caliphate collapses on itself in Syria. Ben Wedeman speaks with civilians as they flee the ruins. Plus, former Facebook employees are describing a cult-like work environment and a "Game of Thrones" culture. CNN gains unprecedented access as the social media giant turns 15.