This Guy Was Sharing The Hacked Celeb Nudes Weeks Before They Leaked

Last night, we brought you the story of the Deadspin reader whose girlfriend was approached on Aug. 19 with a strange request—a Facebook user going by the (presumably fake) name of Jason Killan offered her $5,000 for nude pictures or videos. Our reader—we'll call him David—messaged Killan to tell him to fuck off, only to be offered nudes of Jennifer Lawrence, Alana Blanchard, Victoria Justice, and others in exchange for nude pictures of his girlfriend. He emailed us about this, and then we lost touch. On Sunday, when a massive cache of nude pictures of celebrities hit the internet, we realized in retrospect that David had been dealing with someone who'd had access to at least part of that cache two weeks before it leaked, and a week before word of it had even begun to trickle out online.

Earlier today, David got in touch with us and agreed to share portions of the exchanges he'd had with Killan. Those exchanges are reproduced below, with some redactions.

It should be noted here that despite the implausible claims made by Killan in these exchanges, the best theory right now is that the flood of celebrity nudes is probably due to a trading ring being cracked—in other words, loosely affiliated hackers were swapping independently obtained pictures. Know more about "Jason Killan," who may or may not have been affiliated with this group, or about anyone else trading or selling these images well before they leaked out onto the broader internet? Let us know at [email protected].