Political prognosticators and pundits debated on Saturday the political implications of a bombshell report that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had access to the cell phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.

Famous private investigator Gavin de Becker, who had been retained by Bezos to investigate how the National Enquirer published salacious details of an extramarital affair, laid out the allegations in a column published by The Daily Beast.

“Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information,” De Becker explained. “We did not reach our conclusions lightly.”

The internet, unsurprisingly, wondered what would happen next. Here is some of the analysis:

So what happens if and when the FBI confirms this and DOJ wants to indict a bunch of Saudi officials? Lot of difficult conversations inside the administration. https://t.co/pXni4C5xMO

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) March 30, 2019

This could be a whole new level of trouble that needs to be exposed by bright sunlight. Possibly @JeffBezos most important work. He is courage personified. https://t.co/KHGlWOnTYz

— Richard J. Siegel (@RichardJSiegel) March 30, 2019

The Bezos camp is doubling – no, tripling – down on the Saudi angle: https://t.co/oDDgqnkNrU

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 30, 2019

Golly! Why on earth would the Saudis want to hack Bezos? I mean, it's not like they're colluding with a dude who hates Bezos and happens to be POTUS, right? https://t.co/l7rakCEXvi

— John Battelle (@johnbattelle) March 30, 2019

Jeff Bezos’ private investigator says they’ve determined with high confidence that Saudi Arabia got access to Bezos’ phone. He cites my @AP story with ⁦@JeffHorwitz⁩ that used forensic evidence to show Saudi got advance copy of AMI’s pro-MBS magazine https://t.co/rDQm79lYNL

— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) March 30, 2019

Holy Sh*t. “And now they’ve evolved into trying to strong-arm an American citizen whom that country’s leadership wanted harmed, compromised, and silenced.”- Gavin DeBecker https://t.co/3GwVIoZ6Gv

— Kelly Blodgett (@kelly_blodgett) March 30, 2019

This account would explain why Bezos raised Saudi Arabia in his Medium post, a key question that hadn’t been answered. https://t.co/kIaLypHfgD

— Julie Bykowicz (@bykowicz) March 30, 2019

Jeff Bezos told his longtime security specialist to “spend whatever is needed” to find out who was involved in the National Enquirer's alleged sextortion attempt on his boss. The investigation is now complete, says Gavin De Becker, and Saudi Arabia's fingerprints are everywhere. https://t.co/VA5x6JJQqD

— Kevin Poulsen (@kpoulsen) March 30, 2019

Earlier today, Michael Sanchez — brother of Bezos' GF — told Page Six that the Enquirer *approached him* about Bezos' racy texts, not the other way around. If true, that means the Enquirer found out about the affair from another source or method. https://t.co/uwQZC3pMXY

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) March 30, 2019

However could that have happened? https://t.co/XTN3d6vtL4

— John Avlon (@JohnAvlon) March 30, 2019

Bezos’ investigator notes that the Saudi government has been intent on harming Jeff Bezos since the Washington Post began its relentless coverage of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. https://t.co/E4BflrIzuV

— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) March 30, 2019

I got some grief from people for this column after AMI so aggressively leaked "the brother did it" angle on the Jeff Bezos hacking. But now my piece about the Saudis going after the owner of the Washington Post looks better than ever https://t.co/qWJCgfEChZ

— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) March 30, 2019

But I thought the #Khashoggi killing was totally an accident and the Saudis have nothing to hide from @washingtonpost reporters. https://t.co/uVfBik3p4a

— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) March 30, 2019

BREAKING!
Saudi Arabia ‘had access’ to Jeff Bezos’ phone: Investigator drops bombshell allegation against the Middle East kingdomhttps://t.co/yYGdHQfDwE

— Raw Story (@RawStory) March 30, 2019

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