Saudi Arabia denies hacking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ phone

The United Nations was to release a report Wednesday expected to validate findings, first reported by The Guardian, that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos received a malware-infected video file from a WhatsApp account reportedly belonging to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. That file was allegedly then used to infiltrate Bezos’ personal phone.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called the claims “absurd,” CBS News correspondent Errol Barnett reports.

According to The Financial Times, the hack’s roots trace back to Bezos and bin Salman exchanging phone numbers in Los Angeles. Weeks later, The Guardian reports, Bezos and the crown prince were engaged in a “seemingly friendly WhatsApp exchange” when bin Salman sent an unsolicited malware-infected file. It’s unclear what information was then taken.

Questions about who has access to the tech executive’s phone were first raised last year after the National Enquirer leaked photos and intimate text messages between the then-married Bezos and former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez with whom he was having an affair. The Enquirer said Sanchez’ brother Michael was the original source of the information.

But in a blog post a month after the scandal, Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, suggested that the photos leaked by the Enquirer were obtained illegally through its publisher’s connection to the Saudi government. 

In an op-ed for The Daily Beast, Bezos’ security consultant Gavin De Becker, confirmed that the Saudi government had “access to Bezos’s phone, and gained private information.” He said the government was “intent on harming Jeff Bezos since … the Post began its relentless coverage” of the murder of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul five months after the alleged hack. U.S. officials have told CBS News that the murder was likely ordered by the crown prince.

When asked by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell last September if he ordered the murder of Khashoggi, bin Salman said, “Absolutely not. This was a heinous crime, but I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia. Especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.”

Last December, a Saudi court convicted eight people for their involvement in Khashoggi’s death.

“MBS’s personal role in potentially compromising Jeff Bezos I think raises additional questions about MBS’s defense of the Khashoggi murder that it was simply rogue actors within his state,” said Andrew Miller, the deputy director for policy of the Washington-based think tank Project On Middle East Democracy.

Miller believes the Washington Post’s aggressive reporting on Khashoggi’s murder put a target on Bezos’ back.

“That’s the way things work in Saudi Arabia. That’s the way things work in MBS’s world,” he said. “It was a clear attempt to blackmail Bezos into changing Washington Post coverage and relieving scrutiny on Mohammad bin Salman’s reckless actions.”

Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, confirmed to CBS News’ Pamela Falk that that she and colleague David Kaye would release the public statement Wednesday, and that the U.N. would release more extensive findings regarding the allegations as part of a larger report that Callamard and Kaye were expected to produce in May or June. 

The Washington Post, Amazon and Jeff Bezos’ team did not immediately return requests for comment.