Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez have only one person to blame for the National Enquirer story about their romance, and it’s her brother … and the publication’s laying out its paper trail.

Lauren’s bro, Michael Sanchez, is suing the National Enquirer for libel … because he denies he was the rat behind the story exposing their affair. But, the NE says not so fast, Ratatouille.

In new docs, the media outlet says Michael first contacted one of its reporters on Sept. 10, 2018, and then had subsequent conversations leading up to a face-to-face meeting on Oct. 5, 2018, where Michael revealed some text messages and pics … but did NOT say it involved Bezos or his sister.

On Oct. 17, the reporter asked her bosses about financial parameters for a deal, and requested at least $300k. AMI, the Enquirer’s parent company, says it was around this time they first found out Michael’s information was about Bezos.

Then, according to docs, on Oct. 18 … AMI and Sanchez signed a deal for $200k. The AMI honchos at the time — Dylan Howard and James Robertson — believe that is the most they’d paid a source for a story.

However, it wasn’t until an NYC meeting on Oct. 23 — between Michael, Howard and Robertson … that AMI learned their canary was singing about his own sister. According to the docs, it was during this meeting Michael mentioned having a below-the-belt pic of Bezos … sent to him by Lauren.

Worth noting, AMI says Michael told them in November … Lauren and Jeff were not “in cooperation with him.” He added, “Neither one have a clue.”

Cut to January 2019 … the Enquirer finally publishes the story, and Bezos goes nuts trying to find out their source. You’ll recall, the Amazon honcho hired investigators and publicly theorized the Saudis might have hacked his phone and sold the info to AMI.

Also, according to the docs, Michael went on the record claiming the Enquirer called HIM first, simply trying to confirm the affair.

That’s why AMI says it had to issue a press release defending itself and fingering Michael as its Tekashi6ix9ine, if you will. In the motion, AMI points out it would never have paid him $200k just to confirm information.

AMI is now asking the judge to toss Michael’s lawsuit because they say they didn’t lie about him being the source.

The Buffalo Police Department once again is in the news and, once again, for all the wrong reasons … after a lieutenant called a woman filming him a “disrespectful little f***ing c***.”

The incident unfolded Sunday at a 7-Eleven parking lot in Buffalo … whereas many as 10 police officers responded to a call. The lieutenant — Mike DeLong — told the woman filming him they were responding to a man with 2 crack pipes who had allegedly attacked his mother.

The lieutenant can be seen telling the woman, “We have cameras too” before she tells him to get away from her. The woman, who posted the video to Facebook, asked the lieutenant if having so many officers at the scene was really necessary.

Check out the video … you then see the lieutenant appear to walk away before saying, “You’re a disrespectful little f***ing c***, that’s what you are.” The woman fires back, “Thank you, you’re going to be viral.” Unperturbed, the lieutenant responds, “I don’t care if I go viral, I really don’t.”

The woman who posted the video said she was pulling out of the 7-Eleven parking lot when she saw police cars roll up. She said she started recording because she saw 5 cops — including a female cop with a baton in her hand — walk toward the man in question. She said, “I was immediately concerned. I’ve lived on the westside of Buffalo for my whole life (pre-gentrification), I’ve seen people in my community battle substance abuse and mental illness. He seemed off, but I was not threatened by him in the slightest.”

You can see in the video cops keep their distance before the man’s eventually placed in a gurney and wheeled into an ambulance. The woman ended her caption with this, “Armed police officers should be able to effectively do their job without being threatened by civilians recording them.”

President Trump‘s campaign staff reportedly told arena staff members to remove social distancing signs before they opened the doors, and there’s video showing folks doing just that.

The story was reported by the Washington Post and Billboard — with the former citing sources familiar with the situation … and the latter getting one of the venue’s main overseers on record. The VP of ASM Global — the company that manages the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa — told the magazine that Trump’s campaign had, in fact, given the order.

The VP, Doug Thornton, says the campaign instructed them to stop labeling every other seat with “Do Not Sit Here, Please!” stickers, which the arena staff had already done to nearly every row. The place sits 19,000 — so, at least 9,500 were presumably used.

There was even video captured and posted by WaPo that shows a few men with badges going around and actually removing those stickers. It’s shot from a distance, so it’s hard to make out what the stickers say, but it seems pretty clear they were the ones in question.

It’s unclear if these guys are Trump staffers or arena staffers. In any case, it’s a smoking gun.

This is insane, considering the BOK Center was actually trying to do the right thing and take safety precautions … only to be thwarted by the man’s own team come showtime.

Of course, if you saw the rally live — not to mention the people lining up to get in before doors opened — you know it was already a ‘rona danger zone. Now, the place ended up being mostly empty inside, especially those upper rows. Still, those that were there did pack in like sardines, and now, we appear to know why — at least partially, anyway.

Colorado authorities are taking a second crack at investigating the death of Elijah McClain, who died last year after being stopped by police, and put into a chokehold.

Governor Jared Polis appointed a special prosecutor Thursday to reopen the inquiry into Elijah’s death and potentially prosecute the cops who were involved.

As you’ve probably read … Elijah died back in August 2019 after police stopped him on a street in suburban Denver. His story has gone viral this week, and become a rallying cry for protests against police brutality and systemic racism.

Mari Newman — the attorney for Elijah’s family — tells TMZ … “It shouldn’t take a petition signed by millions to hold police accountable when they kill an innocent black man.”

The Governor is putting state Attorney General Phil Weiser on the case and Polis says, “Elijah McClain should be alive today, and we owe it to his family to take this step and elevate the pursuit of justice in his name to a statewide concern.”

Polis says he was moved to act in part because of Elijah’s mother, who described her son as a “responsible and curious child … who could inspire the darkest soul.”

Aurora PD officers stopped Elijah on August 24, 2019, while responding to a call about a suspicious person walking the streets wearing a ski mask and waving his arms. His family says he commonly wore the mask to keep warm … due to his anemia.

Cops say Elijah refused to stop walking down the street and resisted when police confronted him and attempted to place him in custody. One of the cops placed Elijah in a chokehold.

Body-camera footage of the incident shows Elijah telling the cops, “Let go of me. I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.” His words are now popping up on social media posts demanding justice.

Shout out to 3 Ohio cops who ended up playing football with a group of kids after someone called police to complain 5 black children had the nerve to be … playing outside.

The incident unfolded, of all days, on Juneteenth in Shaker Heights, Ohio … where you can see on video the trio of officers stuck around to take a few snaps and play with the kids … instead of arresting or sending them home.

One of the kids’ mothers, Wendy Brown, reportedly said cops told her, “I don’t know who would do it, but someone called police on the kids, they said they were playing in the street so we came by.” Wendy said the cop also told her, “We used to play in the street as kids.”

They obviously channeled their inner children to join the fun. It was a pretty awesome scene as one of the kids played QB and tossed a spiral downfield as 2 cops battled for the ball.

As Wendy told FOX8, “We encourage them to go outside and just be kids, so they were just playing football out in the street like they do any other time.” She recorded the pickup game with the officers and the video is spreading like wildfire.

NASCAR is committed to keeping the Confederate flag out of its races — but some bigoted fans seem just as committed as shoving it in there … even if they have to take to the skies.

Before the Geico 500 race got underway Sunday at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway, somebody flew a plane over the track with a massive banner bearing the flag … with a message attached. It read, “DEFUND  NASCAR.”

That wasn’t the only display of the Confederacy either — not by a long shot. While no confederate flags were allowed inside the venue, a bunch of truck drivers rolled past the Speedway in what seemed to be a coordinated protest parade, with many flying the flag.

Some folks who wanted to show it off some more even set up camp across the street, and were proudly displaying the Confederate flag, alongside some Trump flags too.

Obviously, some people aren’t all too pleased with NASCAR’s new policy. But it doesn’t sound like the org gives a damn about them, ’cause one of their top dogs took a swipe at the people acting in defiance … flatly rejecting their thinking, and calling them names too.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive VP, addressed the fly-over on Twitter, writing … “You won’t see a photo of a jackass flying a flag over the track here…but you will see this… Hope EVERYONE enjoys the race today.”

It appears God and whoever else is up there in heavens were on Steve’s side here — it was reported that lightning started flaring up in the area, and the event was put on pause for a bit. If that doesn’t make the plane land … well, best of luck getting your message across.