LOS ANGELES (BLOOMBERG) - A long-simmering feud between Mr Donald Trump and Mr Jeff Bezos took a bizarre turn after the multi-billionaire accused allies of the United States President of brazenly trying to extort him.

In a surprising move that lit up social media feeds worldwide, the Amazon.com Inc founder and chief executive officer published a blog post on Thursday (Feb 7) alleging that the publisher of the National Enquirer tried to blackmail him with embarrassing photos of Mr Bezos and a woman who wasn't his wife - including sexually charged selfies.

The usually media-shy executive also published explicit e-mail exchanges and descriptions of the photos, saying he would rather be embarrassed than extorted.

He also pointed to reports that the Enquirer's publisher - American Media Inc chief executive officer David Pecker - has worked before on behalf of the President. Mr Pecker, Mr Bezos said in his post, "recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called 'Catch and Kill' process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign".

Mr Trump, in turn, has frequently criticised Mr Bezos and his newspaper, The Washington Post, for everything from taxes and shipping fees to printing "fake news".

On Twitter last month, Mr Trump called the tech executive "Jeff Bozo".

"It's unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy," Mr Bezos said in his post.

"President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets."

Growing Wealth

Representatives of American Media and the White House didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ironically, becoming a Trump nemesis doesn't seem to have hurt the Amazon founder's fortunes. Since Mr Trump's election, no one has made more money than Mr Bezos, who became the world's richest person thanks to a gold rush of e-commerce, Web advertising and cloud computing.

Mr Bezos's wealth currently is valued at US$133.9 billion (S$181.6 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mr Trump has threatened Amazon with antitrust prosecution, but nothing has materialised. The President also pushed the US Postal Service to charge the e-commerce giant more for package delivery, based on his belief Amazon has a sweetheart deal. That led only to a Treasury Department report proposing that the post office increase rates.

The report didn't provide explicit instructions on how much more the Postal Service should charge.

Divorce Announcement

But it hasn't been smooth sailing for Mr Bezos. Last month, he and his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie, announced plans to divorce. Within hours, the Enquirer published an expose on Mr Bezos' relationship with former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. The supermarket tabloid's story included racy texts exchanged with Ms Sanchez, calling her Mr Bezos' mistress.

Mr Bezos, 55, hired investigators to find out how the texts were obtained and whether the story was politically motivated. The executive also said the Post's coverage of Mr Jamal Khashoggi's murder - a columnist for the newspaper who was killed in Istanbul last year - "is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles".

Mr Bezos' investigators were not tied to the Washington Post, but he acknowledged that owning the newspaper is a "complexifier". When Mr Bezos aired a Super Bowl ad promoting the newspaper on Sunday, one of Mr Trump's sons, Mr Donald Trump Jr, called it an attempt for "undeserved credibility".

"How about report the news and not their leftist BS for a change," he tweeted.

Copyright Issue

Mr Bezos has portrayed himself as a champion of journalism, but his clash with the Enquirer may put him on some shaky ground. In his exchange with a representative for AMI, he argued that the Enquirer was not allowed to publish the compromising images because they belonged to him and are protected by copyright laws.

AMI responded that it was allowed to publish the photos out of a public interest, since "millions of Americans have a vested interest in the success of Amazon".

Gawker made a similar argument when it published a sex tape featuring professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. The website lost its case and ultimately filed for bankruptcy.

In Mr Bezos' case, the question isn't clear-cut, said Ms Mary Ellen Roy, a lawyer at Phelps Dunbar LLP in New Orleans specialising in First Amendment issues.

Any images taken in public are fair game, she said. But if the photos were captured in a private room, they will have to be proven newsworthy.

"Mr Bezos is a businessman and not a political figure - it's not necessarily newsworthy that he has a mistress," she said.

'Fighting Back'

In the Hulk Hogan case, the legal fight against Gawker was financed by billionaire Peter Thiel. He was outed as gay by a Gawker website in 2007 and told the New York Times he believed it was worth "fighting back" against the business.

The Bezos-Enquirer tussle may be another instance where the legal questions are eclipsed by a broader battle.

"Let's face it," said Ms Corynne McSherry, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "Here we have another place where a copyright dispute is serving as a proxy for the real fight."