Amna Nawaz:

Days later, when The Enquirer published some of the Bezos exchanges, President Trump appeared to praise the tabloid on Twitter. He wrote — quote — "So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being taken down by a competitor."

Bezos also notes that David Pecker, CEO of The Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., or AMI, recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice. AMI has told federal prosecutors that the company coordinated with the Trump campaign to buy and then bury a story of a woman who alleges to have an affair with Mr. Trump in 2006.

It's a practice often referred to as catch and kill and, in this case, AMI says, to influence the 2016 presidential election. In his post, Bezos acknowledges AMI's role in the — quote — "process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign."

And he writes — quote — "I also won't participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption."

Federal prosecutors are now reportedly reviewing whether The Enquirer's handling of the Bezos story violated Pecker's immunity deal. Bezos also says The Washington Post's coverage of the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi last October — quote — "seems to have hit a particularly sensitive nerve."

Bezos adds — quote — "Mr. Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions they have taken on behalf of the Saudi government."

Since Bezos' post, journalists, including Ronan Farrow, say they too have been blackmailed by AMI, after reporting on the president's relationship with AMI.

In response, AMI says it — quote — "acted lawfully" while reporting the story, and said it would investigate the matter.

For more on this, I'm joined by Jim Rutenberg, who is following all these developments for The New York Times.

Jim, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

You heard there Jeff Bezos has called this extortion, he's called it blackmail. You have been talking to a lot of people reporting this out. Do we know if that's true?