In my opinion, which is worth nil: Why not both? Clearly (alleged) evidence of wrongdoing on the part of some organisations was uncovered during this investigation, and this guy also (allegedly) got this information illegally and attempted to extort people with it.
Investigate all crimes uncovered, and prosecute everyone to the full extent of the law.
The incentives become for the state to pony up bitcoin to any hacker that will obtain evidence against alleged criminals and have them "publish" it. Then the state is free to use the evidence without any pesky search warrants or judicial oversight.
> In my opinion, which is worth nil: Why not both?
Because for a start the source is tainted, and nothing ensures that the alleged evidence used to extort Rui Pinto's targets was not entirely made up.
Secondly, although the accusations deserve an investigation, accepting prejudicial info release by criminals following a botched extortion campaign ends up validating extortion as a business model.
Investigate all crimes uncovered, and prosecute everyone to the full extent of the law.