The world’s richest man and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asked a Californian judge on Monday to turn down a defamation suit filed against him by his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez’s older brother Michael last week, Bloomberg reported.
The suit by Michael Sanchez, filed on Friday, claims that Bezos and his security expert Gavin de Becker falsely accused him of leaking the businessman’s intimate photos to the National Enquirer in January 2019. The Enquirer revealed in March that the source of materials on Bezos’ private life was Lauren Sanchez’s brother Michael, but he denied giving the newspaper “the many penis selfies”, accusing Bezos of defamation.
The billionaire’s lawyer vowed to address the Sanchez lawsuit and his client did so on Monday, calling his allegations “baseless” and amounting to “an attempt to chill Bezos’ ability to exercise his right of free speech”, while failing to provide any evidence of defamation. According to the Amazon founder, Californian law permits a swift dismissal of suits that infringe these rights and lack a strong legal basis.