Savader was charged with cyberstalking young women and blackmailing. Ex-Romney intern arrested

A former intern for the 2012 Republican presidential ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and for Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign was charged with cyberstalking young women and blackmailing them into sending nude photos in federal court on Tuesday.

Adam Savader, a 21-year-old from Great Neck, N.Y., obtained nude photos of 15 different women and threatened to publish the photos unless the women sent him even more naked pictures, according to a criminal complaint. Some of the victims were Savader’s high school and college classmates.


Savader’s Twitter bio identifies himself as “Formerly @PRyan’s sole intern on @MittRomney’s campaign and a @newtgingrich campaign staffer.” He has over 17,000 followers on the social networking site. The New York Daily News identifies him as a political science student at the State University of New York at Farmingdale.

Savader used Google Voice numbers to send text messages threatening the women under the pseudonym “John Smith.” The first victim, a woman living in Ann Arbor, Mich., had her AOL account hacked and nude photos she had uploaded stolen from it. Savader allegedly posted one of the photos to the photo-sharing site Photobucket.com and sent her a link. Savader allegedly sent the woman a picture of her mother to show her he could access her family and told the woman he was masturbating to her photos.

Police were able to trace the phone numbers and IP addresses associated with “John Smith” to Savader’s home in Great Neck and a home in Quincy, Mass., where Savader was living with a friend.

The process repeated itself with other women, according to the complaint. In one case, Savader threatened to send the nude photos to the Republican National Committee, the victim’s sorority and her parents. In another, he claimed he had nude photos of the victim’s mother.

“WAIT!” Savader allegedly texted one victim. “Listen to me. If we don’t have a deal I will send the pictures to those people. Is that what u want? remember what’s at stake. do u want ur family and everyone in DC to see your t—-s? Just agree to e-mail me a pic of you in a bra.”

Three of the women Savader allegedly threatened have not been identified. The text messages were sent between late September 2012 and April 1, 2013. It’s unclear if any of the women actually sent Savader photos after his threats.

Savader appeared before a magistrate Tuesday in federal court. He will be tried in Michigan, where the first case was reported.

“I’ve known Adam his entire life and he has never behaved in a way that would lead me to believe these allegations are true,” Michael Shoshnick, Savader’s lawyer, told the Daily News.

This article tagged under: Mitt Romney