Photo: Instagram
He sent nude photos of his sister and Jeff Bezos to The National Inquirer.
By Emily Blackwood — Written on Feb 15, 2019
After Jeff Bezos wrote that scathing letter to AMI CEO David Pecker, everyone and their mother has been wondering — who sent the nude photos? Well, now we have an answer: it was Lauren Sanchez's brother.
According to a new report from The Daily Beast, multiple sources inside AMI have confirmed that it was Michael Sanchez who sent Jeff Bezos' and his girlfriends' intimate text messages to the National Inquirer. The texts included messages like this one from Bezos: "I want to smell you, I want to breathe you in. I want to hold you tight."
Even though AMI has refused to name the person who supplied them with the messages, their company lawyer hinted during a recent interview that it was someone "well known to both Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez."
So who is Michael Sanchez, and why did he do it?
1. He's a Hollywood publicist.
According to his Facebook page — which has since been deleted — Sanchez worked as an agent for International Creative Management, a talent and literary agency. Before that, he worked for as the director of sales and marketing for MTV in New York City for five years.
He also is a founding partner of a film and TV production company called Double Tap Media.
2. He's been married to his husband since 2011.
In November of 2011, Sanchez married Casey Ashby in a ceremony in Los Cabos, Mexico. His sister attended the small wedding along with her husband, WME's Patrick Whitesell. They originally met in 2006 and became engaged in Croatia in 2009.
Ashby reported works in the fashion industry as a director of a Gucci store.
3. He has called his sister his "best friend."
If you took a glance at his now-defunct Facebook page, you'd think Michael Sanchez was very close to his sister Lauren. He captioned a photo of the two of them as recently as Sept. 30, 2018, with "celebrating life with my best friend since birth."
He was also the one who alerted the media that Lauren Sanchez and Whitesell had welcomed a baby boy into their lives in 2006.
"They are both absolutely thrilled," he told People.
4. He's a Trump supporter.
Michael has frequently come to the president's defense on Twitter, which includes calling CNN "fake news" several times. He also referred to them as "dishonest divisive dunces," and described the investigation into Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a "witch hunt."
He also has connections to Carter Page, who previously worked as a campaign adviser to Trump. They posed for a photo together in Oct. 2018, and Page told The Daily Beast that they were friends.
5. He's slammed the investigator Bezos' hired for interviewing him.
Bezos started his own investigation into how the National Inquirer got access to his text messages. Gavin de Becker told the Daily Beast that Michael Sanchez was one of the people they had been speaking too and "looking at." The investigation was finished on Feb. 10, and de Becker has not yet revealed his findings, nor has he personally accused Sanchez of anything.
On Jan. 31, Sanchez took to Twitter to share his thoughts about de Becker and his investigation.
“Gavin de Becker, @JeffBezos right hand man, spreads fake, unhinged conservative conspiracy theories, ‘dog whistle’ smears, with on-the-record quotes to trashy tabloids; all while his boss owns @washingtonpost & @Amazon. Huh? Remind me, who was in charge of security? #Truth”
He also told Page Six that he's not "dignifying de Becker's passive-aggressive allegations or crazy conspiracy theories."
"I’ve recommended that Lauren fire him as security for her and the Whitesell children.”
6. Bezos' investigator has said the text message leak might have been politically motivated.
Gavin de Becker told the Daily Beast that the leak is appearing to be politically motivated, which is why Sanchez's name came up because of his support of Trump and his link to one of Trump's allies, Roger Stone.
Stone talked about Sanchez and the Bezos case on InfoWars — a talk show run by controversial conservative commentator Alex Jones — recently, saying that he along with several other people were being accused of hacking Bezos' phone. One of those names was Sanchez, who Stone described as a "very hot Hollywood manager, happens to be a friend of mine.
The InfoWars video has since been taken down or made private.
7. He's a registered Democrat.
Despite all the Trump support and connections, Michael Sanchez is a registered Democrat according to Fox News. Still, he has described himself as a "gay man, a Hispanic, a West Hollywood homeowner and a strong supporter of [President Donald] Trump."
Emily Blackwood is a writer and editor living in California. She covers all things pop culture, news, and true crime.