Washington Post fields 20 reporters to look into Trump's life

A top American daily has set up a team of 20 reporters to investigate and look into every aspect of the life of Donald Trump since he emerged as the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican party.

Trump, 69, the real estate mogul from New York and a reality television star before he joined politics some 10 months ago was quick to fire back by alleging that billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, who recently bought The Washington Post was using the newspaper as a "political instrument" to go after him.

The news that the paper has put together such a team was given by newspapers Associate Editor Bob Woodward during the convention of the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday.

"There's a lot we don't know. We have 20 people working on Trump, we're going to do a book, we're doing articles about every phase of his life," Woodward said.
Woodward said he has himself started looking after the New York real estate deals of Trump.

"The New York real estate world is more complex than the CIA," he said.
Woodward had recently interviewed Trump.

Late in the night in an interview to Fox News, Trump slammed the Amazon founder and described it as vendetta.

"He (Bezos) is using that as a political instrument to try and stop anti-trust, which he thinks I believe he's anti-trust," Trump alleged.

"Amazon is getting away with murder tax-wise. He's using The Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed," Trump alleged.

"We can't let him get away with it," he asserted.

Trump claimed that he is being flooded with phone calls from The Washington Post reporters.

"Every hour we're getting calls from reporters from The Washington Post asking ridiculous questions and I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon," Trump said.

Bezos had acquired The Post for USD 250 million in 2013.
The Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said that there has been no such instruction from Bezos.

"As the individual who oversees The Washington Post's news staff, I can say categorically that I have received no instructions from Jeff Bezos regarding our coverage of the presidential campaign — or, for that matter, any other subject," Baron said.

The Post has a long tradition of publishing thorough examinations of the major party nominees for president. The decision to write a book on Donald Trump came entirely from the newsroom, Baron said.