Terry Crews says National Enquirer publisher attempted to blackmail him and he “called their bluff”

A day after Amazon owner and founder Jeff Bezos wrote a lengthy blog exposing American Media Inc. and its CEO David Pecker’s attempts to blackmail him, actor Terry Crews said that he was once the victim of a similar attempt.

Crews said that AMI – who owns the tabloid National Enquirer – once threated to expose fabricated pictures of him with prostitutes in an attempt to get him to squash a lawsuit against Adam Venit, the WME talent agent who groped him in 2016. Crews tweeted on Friday that he, like Bezos, released the e-mail correspondence.

He tweeted: “This same company, AMI, tried to silence me in my lawsuit against @wme and Adam Venit by fabricating stories of me with prostitutes — and even went so far as creating fake receipts. I called their bluff by releasing their threats online. They blinked.”

This same company, AMI, tried to silence me in my lawsuit against @wme and Adam Venit by fabricating stories of me with prostitutes— and even went so far as creating fake receipts.

I called their bluff by releasing their threats online. They blinked. https://t.co/S6lMZ5K6Tb

— terry crews (@terrycrews) February 8, 2019

—Kanye West’s signature forged as part of a New York Fashion Week Scam—Crews joined a host of celebrities and journalists who say that AMI had pulled the same tricks on them over the years. NBC reporter Ronan Farrow, who was investigating AMI’s ties to Donald Trump, tweeted that he had gotten similar threats.

 “I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar ‘stop digging or we’ll ruin you’ blackmail efforts from AMI,” Farrow tweeted on Thursday night. “I did not engage as I don’t cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting.”

I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar “stop digging or we’ll ruin you” blackmail efforts from AMI. (I did not engage as I don’t cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting.) https://t.co/kHQdWIkVjV

— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) February 8, 2019

Reporters and editors from other organizations such as the Associated Press and Daily Beast made similar statements.

—CNN’s Symone Sanders catches heat for belittling “unsolicited opinions” from Black men—

“We were warned explicitly by insiders that AMI had hired private investigators to dig into backgrounds of @AP journalists looking into the tabloid’s efforts on behalf of Trump,” Ted Bridis, the former Associated Press investigative editor, tweeted in response to Farrow. Never saw evidence of this either way, and it didn’t stop our reporting.”

Crews and Venit agreed to settle that civil lawsuit in September. While Venit did not admit to the allegations, he took responsibility for the situation in a letter of apology to Crews.