Quote:
The statute[/b][/url] says "money or other thing of value," which is contextual, as is the the "threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee"." The statute was written to provide latitude. The dispositive element is the Threat to release the information, a threat they made repeatedly.

The threat remains the same, even after the information was released. They set out a list of demands, and, if they weren’t met, “Check Mate” would follow.


Great point. I've never really looked up the full meaning of extortion, but it does make sense for it to not only be about money. Otherwise people would probably extort the shit out of each other all the time.

I guess those lawsuits have way more merit than I thought.