American Media Will Investigate Jeff Bezos' Extortion Claims Over Risque Pics

2/8 -- AMI has responded to Jeff Bezos, and it sounds like his claim has shaken them. The company says, "American Media believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos. Further, at the time of the recent allegations made by Mr. Bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him."

They continue, "Nonetheless, in light of the nature of the allegations published by Mr. Bezos, the Board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. Upon completion of that investigation, the Board will take whatever appropriate action is necessary."

6:11 PM PT -- Ronan Farrow says AMI also attempted to blackmail him "and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer's arrangement with Trump."

The Pulitzer Prize winner says he "fielded similar 'stop digging or we'll ruin you' blackmail efforts from AMI." He says he did not engage AMI on the topic.

Jeff Bezos is sick of playing games with the National Enquirer -- he's released a series of letters it sent him, threatening to blackmail him over photos he and his lover sent each other.

The Amazon honcho says the Enquirer's parent company American Media Inc. (AMI) is threatening to publish photos he exchanged with Lauren Sanchez if he doesn't shut down investigations into AMI's ties to President Trump and the Saudi government.

Remember, Bezos owns the Washington Post, which has been all over the Trump administration's Saudi ties since its journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered last year.

Bezos says he also hired a private investigator to find out how the Enquirer obtained his text messages to Sanchez ... which it published last month. He's now gone fully on the offensive by releasing

, threatening to publish new explicit photos of Bezos and Sanchez, if he and WaPo don't back off.

As you can see in the emails, the Enquirer execs claim to have sexually explicit images sent between Jeff and Lauren ... including his naked bathroom selfie, several shirtless snaps of Jeff and sexually suggestive images of Lauren.

Bezos makes no bones about it ... calling it blackmail, but adding AMI miscalculated his reaction. He says he'd rather risk the public embarrassment than give in to the extortion attempt.

We reached out to AMI for comment ... no word back yet.

As we reported, the world's richest man is divorcing his wife, Mackenzie Bezos -- which he announced in January, the day before the Enquirer published its story about his relationship with Sanchez.

Originally Published -- 2/7 4:28 PM PT