WaPo Reporter: Bezos' Investigators Think 'Government Entity' Might Have Leaked His Sexts...

[DonViejo]

WaPo Reporter: Bezos’ Investigators Think ‘Government Entity’ Might Have Leaked His Sexts to National Enquirer

by Aidan McLaughlin | Feb 7th, 2019, 11:40 pm

A Washington Post reporter dropped a bombshell Thursday night: that investigators working for Jeff Bezos believe “a government entity” may have obtained his text messages, and rather than a phone hack, that this is how the National Enquirer got them.

-snip-

On MSNBC Thursday night, Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia said he had “spoken extensively” with the head of Bezos’ investigation, security consultant Gavin de Becker. “They have begun to believe, the Bezos camp, that this publication by the National Enquirer might have been politically motivated,” Roig-Franzia said.

“Gavin de Becker told us that he does not believe that Jeff Bezos’s phone was hacked,” the reporter continued. “He thinks it’s possible that a government entity might have gotten hold of his text messages.”

Bezos has published the graphic extortion messages, which you can read here. After his revelations, journalist Ronan Farrow came out with his own accusations against the Enquirer, which you can read about here.

David Pecker, the CEO of National Enquirer parent company AMI, is a longtime ally of President Donald Trump. The company has been cooperating with investigators in the Southern District of New York ever since it admitted to making a $150,000 “catch-and-kill” payment to rid of a story about an alleged affair Trump had with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

full article
https://www.mediaite.com/online/washington-post-reporter-bezos-investigators-believe-government-entity-might-have-obtained-his-texts/

[themaguffin]

1. The story is huge without any gov't action, but if there is, there needs to be evidence

[underpants]

2. This sounds trivial ( but we are talking Trump here) Carrell on SNL as Bezos trashing trump

if you don’t think that mushroom boy saw that and it dug deep into his craw then you haven’t been paying attention

If you haven’t seen it - below. These days they call this “trolling”, we used to call it talking trash AND ripping a new one

[llmart]

11. Oh, no. I hadn't seen that clip. I'll bet Donnie was furious when he saw that...

especially the bit about fake hair and real men. Think of how furious dirty donnie was at Obama's correspondents dinner jabs at him.

I'm loving it.

[FakeNoose]

32. He-he Trump melts down over this and Bezos had nothing to do with it

Absolutely hilarious!

I hope it can be proved that Cheeto ordered the hacking and blackmailing of Jeff Bezos, using government sources. OMG it will be all over for him, even the rightwingers will want him out on his fat orange ass.

Good job Steve Carrell!

[NewJeffCT]

3. How Nixonian

using an intelligence agency to try to destroy a perceived rival.

[getagrip_already]

14. doesn't need to be an intel agency, any LEO can get texts....

Under the patriot act, any LEO who has access to anational system can make an electronic request and get all your records, including texts, from your carrier.

It doesn't require a warrant, just filling out a form.

So there is likely some detective somewhere in peckers pocket (pecker has a dick in his pocket?). But that sytem has an audit trail. A security admin can run a query and find out who requested those records. Then they can see who else that person requested records on.

Now that could get interesting.

[OnDoutside]

4. "a government entity" ? US or Saudi ? He's pretty vague on that.

[Corgigal]

5. De Becker while you're investigating this,

could you drop a few year tax returns. Thanks from America.

[PeeJ52]

6. Uh, now that I see that his girlfriend's brother is a tRump supporter and Stone friend...

and she works for Fox, this is all making sense... Bezos.. you were catfished...

[Scruffy1]

18. Bingo

Occams razor et al.

[Honeycombe8]

7. How would any entity get the pics & emails, if not by hacking?

What other way could they get them? Whether it's an individual or a government entity?

What gvt entity is working for Trump directly? The DOJ? The intel entities are not working for him, which is why Trump attacks them. The FBI, National Security, CIA.

[tinrobot]

10. Hacking by a foreign intelligence service?

Russians are pretty good at that... so are others.

[Honeycombe8]

12. It said the phone wasn't hacked. No matter by whom. ???nt

[tinrobot]

15. Was the phone backed up to a central server of some sort?

That would be one opening.

The phone that received the messages would be another opening. Was that phone secure? Was that data backed up somewhere?

Someone could also intercept the data as it is being sent, but that's usually government level stuff. It has been reported that the Chinese have been doing just this with the internet equipment they manufacture, which is why it has just been banned.

[Major Nikon]

16. Cell phone company worker would be my guess

[Honeycombe8]

20. That's hacking, isn't it? If you enter someone's locked/passworded private account,

that's hacking, isn't it? I guess for a cell phone worker, he might be able to get in more easily. But still hacking?

[Major Nikon]

21. I'm sure it's probably illegal

But considering a tabloid would pay for it there’s plenty of incentives.

[Honeycombe8]

25. Well, I know. But I wonder how they got the texts & pics, if they didn't hack the account.

The technical way they did it. That's what I'm wondering.

MAYBE his mistress' brother, a Trumper, got into HER phone? Hmmm.....that sounds possible.

[Major Nikon]

30. The provider doesn't have to hack anything

Those messages travel through their network and different providers store them for different lengths of time. Law enforcement can also get them from the provider with a supeona and sometimes without.

[NutmegYankee]

26. It depends. A phone company employee may have "admin" access.

And all text data goes through the phone servers.

[Honeycombe8]

27. I bet Bezos and his investigator think the brother had access and did it.

I betcha. Since they have mentioned he is a possibility in this sordid business. Maybe the mistress's phone isn't passworded.

[Blue_true]

37. Transmissions via a server are no longer under the sender's control.

One more reason why I never take dick photos, least yet send them.

[Honeycombe8]

39. So if someone goes into a server & takes transmissions...

Is that hacking of a sort? Or something else?

Bezos and his investigator say his phone wasn't hacked. So I guess, it could have been hacked on the other end, or from the server.

It seemed as if they think it was his mistress's brother, who is a wacko Trumper.

Doesn't matter, I guess. I was just wondering.

[Blue_true]

40. If the person works for the transmission company and has access

it is not hacking. If the images were taken off a phone company server, the company should be able to figure out who accessed the files, but that search should be done by a large team that reports directly to a trustworthy high company official. The whole thing is a bag of worms. There is no way that I will send intimate material over the net, even if I took such photos (which I don't).

[Honeycombe8]

41. I see.

LOL...sorry I didn't understand. I don't know how the transmission of texts & pics over cell wireless works.

I know...I do NOT get that people are STILL sending X rated materials out, after all the nude pics of people have been released to the public the last few years. Esp someone Bezos' age. He should know better.

I wouldn't.

[Blue_true]

42. Large private companies have encryption for sensitive

information that is transmitted. Some don't allow material over a certain security level to be transmitted electronically, instead opting for secure human carriers.

The phone companies own the encryption technology that our phones rely on, so they can see whatever that want to see. Fortunately there are likely billions of texts flying about daily, so in order for one person's texts to be trapped and viewed, that person would have to be targeted.

Even beyond Bezos' age, I am floored that such a massively high profile person would send out risqué stuff over the net, that is what is mind boggling. His mere prominence means that he has a much higher risk of getting targeted than regular people does.

[Honeycombe8]

43. Yes. That, too. He's so famous. AND he's in a war w/the President. Geez. nt

[SMoss]

8. Grocery store gorilla warfare against Enquirer

I Inquirer tried to extort Bezos and the Washington Post. The National Inquirer sucks. I have hated them since their coverage of Princess Diana's death. When I am standing in line at the grocery store I take a copy out of the rack. Then I put it back in the rack backwards. My grocery store gorilla warfare.

[Johnny2X2X]

9. GET TRUMP OUT NOW!!!!

Is there any doubt that Trump would use the NSA, CIA, and FBI for this type of illegal score settling? All Trump cares about it settling scores like this.

This is what despots do, they use the government powers to destroy their enemies.

[Blue_true]

38. He does not need the agencies, just one admirer in one of them.

There are plenty of rightwing nuts in all of those agencies.

[Perseus]

13. One of the deals AMI made with the Feds is that they would not engage in criminal acts

I wonder if they have crossed the line...

[dhill926]

17. it would seem they did...

this is about to get REAL interesting....

[mitch96]

31. They obtained information illegally.....

I think they have crossed the line... We shall see how bad the fed's want to mess with pEcker.
m

[DirtEdonE]

19. How many times have they done this?

This isn't the first and certainly won't be the last time they've used strong-arm tactics like this. scarborough hinted that legislators in both the House and Senate, and possibly himself and his co-host, have been blackmailed by trump and his goons. That could easily explain their acquiescence to trump's madness.

This would also explain "tough guy" chris christie's total capitulation to and his willingness to be publicly humiliated over and over again by trump.

They're all cowards. And not a single one of those traitors belongs anywhere near a seat of power.

They all belong in prison for misprision of treason, among their myriad other crimes.

[KayF]

22. I'm skeptical about this

this Daily Beast story says the "Deep State" theory was floated by an associate of Roger Stone and Carter Page, not exactly a credible source.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bezos-investigators-question-the-brother-of-his-mistress-lauren-sanchez-in-national-enquirer-leak-probe

[BruceWane]

23. Consider Bezos's tech security

You have to consider that Amazon is very, very much a technology company. A huge part of their business is AWS (Amazon Web Services). They leverage their own massive, worldwide technology infrastructure to lease bandwidth - if you want to launch something big on the internet, you don't need to by your own hardware. Amazon will sell you all the internet horsepower you want. Lots of very large companies use AWS.

Also, Bezos is well aware that his business communications, were they intercepted, could have massive implications on Amazon.

This is not in any way comparable to the Clinton/DNC/Podesta debacle. Bezos has an army of tech security. I guarantee you that his password is not "password". I guarantee you that his personal devices are as un-hackable as they come. And I guarantee you that all this was checked and double-checked by DeBecker.

At this point, the pool of possible players in this game reduces rapidly to government spooks. I would bet that Bezos's communications were collected by the NSA "incidentally", as they coyly tend to put it. And someone trump worshipper with access then provided it to the WH to use as a nuclear weapon against the owner of the Washington Post.

There's lots of things I don't like about some of Amazon's business practices, but I absolutely applaud Jeff Bezos for having the integrity to place defending the free press above his own considerable personal pain.

[FakeNoose]

33. Sure it makes sense

I hope somebody checks out Lauren Sanchez and her brother. Jeff Bezos is no dummy, but maybe he's blinded by "love!"

[spanone]

24. Individual #1

?

[elfin]

28. I think he was honey trapped

He is of an age and probably has that arrogance to think she was only interested in HIM and his nether parts with true love forever. Men are STUPID at a certain age no matter how rich or "smart" they are or think they are.

She's in it for $ and for the thrill of personal espionage to damage the one hurting Trump and the lure of fame and a lot of $ from AMI. She gave her bro the access to Bezos' info including passwords and locations to get photos from afar.

Then the whole thing tipped before she got the marriage license in order to get an even bigger payout when AMI pulled the trigger on the purloined info in order to provide yet another distraction for Trump and to please their Saudi overlords in their own desired deal with them.

If that was the process, then there will be no proof of gov't hacking. But plenty of proof that "smart" and powerful Bezos got played.

It will have been for the nastiest of motives - to cover up and quash the murder of Khashoggi (sp?) and reduce the power of the Post -- but can that be "proved?"

[C_U_L8R]

29. How about three?

Saudi. Russia. And Trump.

[workinclasszero]

34. Well Trump the Russian agent/crime boss in charge

and his gutter republican party that are rat fucking dems all over the country would never dream of using the intelligence apparatus of the US government to attack his perceived political opponents.

[Grasswire2]

35. what if said government actor was a rogue U.S. Intel entity under ultimate direction of Trump?

That's the possibility I inferred. Perhaps too CT.

[Blue_true]

36. Notice to self: Never take penis and ass photos.

get it?!!!!!!!!!

[Ilsa]

44. Maybe the trump administration got MBS/ Saudis to order spying of Bezos. nt