EXCLUSIVE: Lauren Sanchez’s brother Michael fails to sue National Enquirer publisher for ‘defaming’ him by claiming he leaked the story of her affair with Jeff Bezos

Michael Sanchez, the brother of Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren, has failed to sue National Enquirer publishers, American Media Inc and its former CEO David Pecker for “burdening” him with claims that he the story of his sister and the Amazon had leaked. business of the founder.

Court documents obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com and filed Friday in the United States District Court, Central District of California reveal that Judge Dolly M Gee dismissed his lawsuit because he felt there is “no real dispute” that Sanchez’ the first and only source was’ ,’ of the story.

Neither Lauren, 53, nor Bezos, 59, were parties to Sanchez’s lawsuit, but his case dealt with the details of their affair being exposed four years ago.

Earlier this year, DailyMail.com revealed that Sanchez tried to rip off both in what Lauren described as a “psychologically abusive” attempt to put pressure on the power couple, “hoping she would pay him to leave.”

Hollywood talent agent Sanchez, 56, claimed he was defamed by AMI and co when they cited him as the source for the tip and material leading up to the story of the affair revealed in The National Enquirer on Jan. 9, 2019.

Earlier that same day, Bezos and his then-wife Mackenzie Tuttle, 53, posted an announcement on Twitter that they were separating.

According to Sanchez’s lawsuit, around the same time, Lauren also told her husband Patrick Whitesell, 58, the truth about her affair with Bezos, and also shared the fact that she had been approached for comment by The National Enquirer.

Sanchez, who was his sister’s de facto manager and adviser at the time, had admitted to being a source, but insisted he was not the first or only one to bring the information to the publication, pointing the finger at Lauren’s then-husband . , Patrick Whitesell.

But today’s court documents show that one of the damning evidence that surfaced against Sanchez during the discovery process of his own civil suit was a statement by Whitesell.

In it, he testified under oath that he was not the source and discredited other claims made by Sanchez regarding the timeline of the leaked story and related communications.

Lauren and Jeff, photographed at a Hollywood Versace fashion show in March, announced their engagement in May

In fact, the verdict against him held that, despite Sanchez’s claims, there was “no evidence that any third party had provided AMI with photographs or other substantive information about Bezos and Lauren’s affair.”

The ruling goes against Sanchez’s insistence that the Enquirer approached him with knowledge of the affair in the fall of 2018.

It also rejects his account of a labyrinthine and political plot against Bezos that he claimed was at the root of the story involving not only Lauren’s ex-husband but also the Saudi Arabian government.

Bezos himself had reacted to the publication of the story by having his head of security conduct an investigation into the origin of the story.

Given his ownership of the liberal Washington Post and AMI’s ties to President Trump and the Saudi government, he wanted to know if the story was politically motivated.

In May 2018, AMI had published a highly favorable 97-page special entitled The New Kingdom profiling Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salam.

The Washington Post’s coverage of the murder of Saudi dissident their columnist Jamal Khashoggi just five months later went against the modernizing image the nation was trying to project. It later emerged that Saudi intelligence had indeed hacked post owner Bezos’s phone with advanced spy gear, Pegasus – a program that gave them full access to all of his communications and data.

According to Sanchez’s lawsuit, AMI’s then-CEO Pecker became “apolectic” upon learning that Bezos had launched an investigation into their sources.

At the time the story was published, the magazine claimed it had a “steamy photo that was too graphic to print.”

In February 2019, Dylan Howard, editor of the National Enquirer, informed Bezos first verbally and later by email that he had received intimate text messages between the lovers, as well as an “under the belt selfie” or “lick pick” from Bezos .

Howard would have threatened to publish this material if Bezos did not stop his investigation into the source of the story.

Instead, Bezos bluffed and published what he claimed amounted to extortion.

It was in the chaotic fallout of this mess that AMI issued a public statement citing Sanchez as the sole source of both the tip and all material related to the story of his sister’s affair.

Sanchez filed his case against AMI three years ago and also filed a failed lawsuit against Bezos himself during that time.

During the months of lawsuits to push back his attempt to depose his own sister, Lauren’s lawyers pointed out that Sanchez “privately admitted to disclosing her private information to AMI.”

In a letter included in court documents accessed by DailyMail.com and dated February 2022, Lauren’s attorney Bird wrote, “There is no question that Ms. Sanchez shared information with Mr. Sanchez about her relationship with Mr. Bezos because she trusted him like her brother. . Nor is it certain that Mr. Sanchez took that information and offered to sell it to the National Enquirer for $300,000 before eventually receiving $200,000, all without Ms. Sanchez’s knowledge.”

Bird added, “The enormous damage inflicted on Ms. Sanchez by the deceptive betrayal (of her brother) cannot easily be put into words, but suffice it to say it was devastating.”

Sanchez had, Bird wrote, “Without a shred of self-reflection or shame . . . claimed that it was he who had been manipulated, not his sister whose trust he betrayed, and that it was he who was the real victim.”

According to today’s verdict, Sanchez did not even bring convincing evidence to support his claims, while the defendants presented substantial evidence to undermine them.

The order reads: “In light of the foregoing, the Court concludes that no reasonable juror could find, not even drawing all conclusions in favor of Sanchez, that the defendants’ statement that Sanchez was their first and only source for the Bezos affair was, was not true.’

The court noted, “There is no question that he sold the information about his sister’s affair.”