Palin Email Hack: Man Indicted

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker pleaded not guilty Wednesday to hacking the e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville, Tenn. entered the plea in federal court in Knoxville, the same day prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with intentionally accessing Palin's e-mail account without authorization.

Kernell, an economics student at the University of Tennessee, was brought into court wearing handcuffs and shackles on his ankles.

He was released without posting bond, but the court limited his computer use to checking his own e-mail and doing class work.

Kernell's father is longtime state Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee. The lawmaker has said he had nothing to do with the hacking incident.

David Kernell was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Knoxville and faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Trial is set for Dec. 16.

The investigation is continuing. The indictment said at least one other person successfully reset Palin's e-mail password and accessed her e-mail account after the hacker named "rubico," whom the government contends is Kernell, posted his exploits on the Web.

"I wouldn't say specifically whether that other individual may be charged or not," Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said from Washington.

U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley restricted Kernell from discussing the case with any potential witnesses, which include his roommates.

Kernell was also restricted from having any contact directly or indirectly with the Alaska governor or her family.

Shirley warned that if Kernell violated any part of his release conditions, he would be held until the trial.

Kernell's attorney, Wade Davies, accompanied his client in court.

"As soon as we found out about the charges this morning, David voluntarily turned himself in," said Davies, who refused to answer any other questions.

The indictment alleges that on Sept. 16 Kernell reset the password to Palin's personal e-mail account to gain access to it. Authorities say Kernell then read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information, later posting some of the information to a public Web site.

Comments

[DarthVector]

Yes, he broke the law. It's not something I'd do lightly. But sometimes breaking the law can be justified. Remember that the Constitution was written by treasonous rebels who could have been hanged by the Crown had they failed to achieve independence for the Colonies

Nonetheless, i think that the kid's a dillweed. The reason's simple. If you are going to break the law for the greater good, you must remember a simple rule:

In for a penny, in for a pound.

If you are going to bust open the email account because you feel it is in the national interest, then put her stuff on record. Otherwise, you do time for no reason. And you facilitate the possible destruction of evidence.

Though I suspect Yahoo! has all this on permanent file somewhere.­..

[StValentine]

shackles?!?! C'mon!!!!

[luvobama]

Let's tar and feather him.

sarcasm

[UltraClassic]

To all you excuse makers out there. First of all, the punk did not come up with anything interesting which of course is a big disappointment to all liberals and leftist democrats.

But more importantly, this clown could have just as easily hacked into your accounts. Think about it before you start trying to excuse this guy's possible crime.

[luvobama]

Boy i could tell you some stories of my 20 year old behavior.

The kid is young and new. The bl ood hasn't even gotten to his neck, let his brain. Stop with the phony outrage.

You and your party are responsible for over 4100 de ath s of our own people. Go wash your hands. They're dripping.

[milo h minderbinder]

"this clown could have just as easily hacked into your accounts"

Nah, I'm not as moronically careless with my security info as the governor.

[henrymiller212]

bad day for the lad. where is the pardon from the white house?

[Ramirez]

The kid is now America's most motivated Obama supporter.

[luvobama]

Nope that would be me. The key word here is KID.

[RHM]

As much as I can't stand Palin (the political pole dancer), I hope this kid gets hammered for this.

Tacky.

RHM

[luvobama]

Bring out the electric chair.

[Destin]

Let me get this right, it's legal for the govt to hack my email account without a warrant, without probably cause, and without any reason except that they just want to..... but it's illegal for me hack them??

People who deny we are in a recession, also deny we are living under fascism.

Where's Palemoon when I need her for those John Locke quotes she always comes up with, lol.

[lbjranch]

Unfortunately your right. The President did sign the FISA Bill. I'm angry about the President signing it and I'm angry at Obama for voting for it.

I'm not sure this kid is guilty. I'd put my money on the Big Oil Co.'s and the entrenched Republican leaders up in Alaska that Palin exposed and defeated. You don't mess with powerful people like that and just get away with it.

I think this kid could be getting set up.

[Ramirez]

Obama voted for FISA.

[GrainOSand]

Innocent until proven guilty is the standard.

If the young man did the crime, I can appreciate his motivations just not his methods. I looked at the picture of the young man, and I see a handsome young man just pushing away from the shore and now he is embroiled in a storm, he is in rough waters. The authorities must think they have a solid case; otherwise, it would not be to this point. I hope he did not do the crime. It is a moral crime first (for me) and a societal crime second; you do not intrude upon the privacy of others. The barracuda is upsetting if you allow for that (I do not -- she is how do you say it -- inconsequential to what matters), but she should not be so upsetting that you trash that which you are, to expose what should be plain by now for anyone to see; namely Palin is not the answer. There is such a thing as an unjust law to which any true patriot will not and should not comply. The prohibition not to intrude upon the privacy boundaries of others is not such a law. This is the law of mothers and fathers that tell siblings to respect each other’s privacy, that tell Joey not to look at Sylvia’s diary, and Sylvia not to rummage through Joey’s closet.

[butonelife]

Fair is fair. But which bushco administration official is going to be shackled and dragged in front of a magistrate for hacking all of America's e-mails?

[wmafoune]

I hope he gets acquited.

[clearthinker2008]

Where is the indictment for the guy you yelled "Kill him" at Palin's rally?

[RightWingMarine]

we have a right to free speech, even speech that is unpopular (Brandenburg V. Ohio 1969).

The right to privacy which is what Roe V. Wade is what I believe this is based on.

[LeftRight]

Actually, we DON'T have a right to free speech when that speech endangers another. Thus we cannot incite a riot, we cannot get people together and speak to them for the purpose of lynching (or any like activity..­.) and we cannot yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater.

While we will probably never know the actual thoughts of that person, nor of the other people present, we DO know that yelling "Kill Him!" is NOT a protected Free Speech!

[FarOutFish]

Illegal is illegal no matter how you slice it. Praising this young man for his snooping on Palin is akin to praising Bush for snooping on American citizens. Shame on all of them.

[TheIndependenceParty]

It was illegal, as I understand it, for the White House Staff not to use the official e-mail accounts, and for the White House support team not to archive their exchanges, as it appears from missing records they did not. It might have been illegal for them to exchange e-mails on official subjects via the Republican RNC e-mail, ... and if it was not it should be!

Those responsible for trashing these legal White House records have not yet been shackled, nor are they likely ever to be. If this young man did commit this crime against the governor's privacy, a federal offense, then he must be reckoned with. Will the governor pay for circumventing official communication channels in her office? Again, likely not. Should she? I leave that for the citizens and legal authorities in Alaska to determine.

He is presumed innocent until he is tried and convicted. That is America. We will learn more about this young man in coming months. I withhold judgement until he is tried. Perhaps Bush will commute his sentence as he did when Libby perjured himself. Libby after all was an attorney, and should have known better. This young man is a college student.

[FarOutFish]

Palin is not a Federal employee, she is Governor of Alaska. I don’t see what the White House e-mails have to do with this. That is a separate matter to be dealt with, not an excuse for another’s misdeeds. What matters is not the law but a matter of right and wrong. No matter the law, what was done here was wrong. There is no justification for this violation of privacy, especially from the political party that purports to value privacy as highly as free speech.

[ScreenName05]

Okay, here's a deal, you can prosecute this guy if you agree to prosecute Bush, Cheney, etc. The single greatest mistake that most Americans make is to think that the law is enforced equally or fairly. Ask Martha Stewart, all she did was sell some stock after a friend told her it would go down. Bush on the other hand sold all of the stock he owned in a company he started after he received an accounting report, three weeks ahead of the board, that stated the company was bankrupt. Bush walked away with the money, his friendly investors lost everything. But his daddy was Pres at the time, so the SEC said they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute. Cheney was drunk when he shot his bud in Texas, most of us would go to jail for that little trick, but I guess the law is different for old white guys. And 3/4ths of all the people in jail are black because black people are naturally more criminal than the rest of us. So remember illegal is illegal sometimes, mostly when the powers that be are not the ones committing the crime. You should check out the book Animal Farm, a forgotten legacy about communism and the fact that all animals are equal except the pigs are more equal.

[oxford]

Right On!!!!! Also a quick look at Orwell's other prophetic tale "1984", about Big Brother and endless wars and economic depression. Does this sound even a little bit like "life imitating art?". It was written as a cautionary tale, NOT A OPERATING MANUAL". Someone should clue in the neocons.

[RightWingMarine]

I'm guessing you're not here in TX. Getting drunk and shooting your friends is merely discouraged. In TX it is legal to kill people you see stealing your car stereo so long as you kill them at night and the defense of "he needed killin'" is a justification for murder that has actually been used. I suppose down here in TX we believe in freedom.

[stellasaurusrex]

Yeah, it was illegal and he should be punished, no matter how much Palin sucks. But what he did is not akin to what Bush and his government cronies have done. What they have done is assume guilty until proven innocent, snooping in on everyday Americans. This whole thing just goes to show how preferential treatment is given to certain people and not others.

[mikehere]

He should be commended. Imagine a VP using a public email account for conducting official business?

[milo h minderbinder]

Sadly, we don't have to imagine...

And using it specifically to avoid public scrutiny and hamper ethics investigations to boot.

[Ramirez]

Here is a link to the progressive blog "Gawker". In the tradition of the Democratic Party support of right to privacy they have published the Palin emails along with her address book and personal photos.

Can anyone find anything in here that has anything to do with government? If anyone is making the argument that she was using this account for government business they need to find an email to support their claim. Good luck and happy hunnting.

http://gawker.com/5051193/sarah-palins-personal-emails

[milo h minderbinder]

Only a couple emails were published, however the full list of headers was published and there were quite a few that were government related. You can see the full list here:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_Yahoo_inbox_2008

And I'm not sure why you think not finding govt related things on that day proves that she never used the account for government business. Her staff has admitted that they all did exactly that and emails confirming it were obtained through legal means.

Quit trying to argue that she didn't use yahoo for government business, it was confirmed as a fact weeks ago.

[milo h minderbinder]

Examples:

FW: Motor Fuel Tax Suspension
Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger / Container Tax
Rural Wireless Service
RE: Using Royalty Oil to Lower the Cost of Fuel for Alaskans
Court of Appeals / Executive Director Parole Board / Boards and Commissions
FW: DPS Employee Draft
Re: DPS Personnel and Budget Issues
Court of Appeals Nominations
another records request
RE: Request for Information and Documents
FW: Memorandum of Law
FW: PR 08-2598 Summer 2009 Schedule Released

And my personal favorite:
FW: CONFIDENTIAL Ethics Matter

Not real confidential when you're irresponsible with your email security. Oops!

[Ramirez]

Okay. That's a decent argument. But what the kid did was still a crime, even if he is cheered for committing it.

And that Gawker site is creepy.

[EquinsuOcha]

I'm curious - what statute is he being charged under? Because if the account was an illegal sidestepping of sunshine laws, then why isn't he protected under Whistleblower standards?

[Ramirez]

He didn't whistleblow. He just got caught.

[jdw1981]

I hope he's acquitted and gets a huge book deal and makes a ton of money.

[Ramirez]

He will certainly be a rock star in the Democratic Party. Maybe he could sell the movie rights.

[TheIndependenceParty]

Yup-Yup, ... He might turn out someday to be the Democratic Party's version of the Republican Byte-Head, Mike Connell!

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3565.shtml

[contemporarymom]

So much for carrying the liberal flag of right to privacy? You celebrate this kind of behavior?

Or are the rights only for those you like?

[milo h minderbinder]

She'd probably get more sympathy if she wasn't using Yahoo email to try and hide her communications from public scrutiny and legal investigations.