Re: Dodging the accusation
US law includes provisions for legally sending blackmail and extortion demands. You need a qualified lawyer to write the demands in the form of a settlement agreement and you cannot ask for money or something decisively equivalent to money. AMI want Bezos to stop investigating and to make a public statement that AMI's coverage of Bezos is not politically motivated. AMI's lawyer appears to have followed correct legal procedure to just barely avoid a criminal charge of extortion. Details are here.
AMI broke campaign financing law. They contributed to the Trump campaign buy buying and burying stories about him without declaring the contribution. This information comes from their own signed statements (and is corroborated elsewhere). They currently have immunity from prosecution because of the evidence they gave against Trump's lawyer David Cohen. The immunity depends on them not breaking they law again after signing their immunity deal.
Bezos is not the only one investigating AMI. To me their response to the failure shut down these investigations is of the form: "We are going to evade prosecution by throwing one of our employees under the bus".
The lesson to be learned here is that if you really want to work for shit-bags make damn sure you have quality dirt on them first.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
