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

[moreupnorth]

Why are the majority of commentors here making excuses for this boy. Are people not innocent until proven guilty in America or is that now a forgotten rule of law these days?

Second of all he is charged with violating someones privacy and personal information. That is in fact what identity theives do. So if he is found guilty then he should be treated no different than any other privacy invading criminal.

His party affiliation or leanings have nothing to do with it. Saying all Democrats are criminals is equivalent to saying all Republicans are gay because of Larry Craig and it IS NOT TRUE. But it is discriminatory and bigoted. Something both sides seem to suffer from down there!

[Hondo 2008]

Be careful moreupnorth, you are sounding too reasonable and trolls are out this afternoon. I admire your bravery.

[moreupnorth]

point taken :) so far no threats or trolling :)

[KeysDan]

Ask for a change of venue, and a jury trial.

[AzRealProgressive]

Wh? The kid wrote an e-mail describing how he did it. He is innocent until proven guilty but he did something that will cost him if he is found guilty.

[milo h minderbinder]

We don't know that he did it, and we don't know that he wrote the email.

How would you like it if someone committed a crime and sent an email from "AzRealProgressive" confessing to it?

[susierr]

Yes this college kid made a mistake.
I think federal prison is a little harsh, this is a non-violent crime.
Put him to work, obviously he needs more constructive challenges.

[AzRealProgressive]

You are right, good point.

[VeroucaSalt]

Awfully quick action on a 20-yr old kid. Ya think we could do the same for Palin re: troopergate?

[AzRealProgressive]

There is nothing criminal to that in any form. Indict her for what ? Go ahead, name the crime and applicable statue.

[milo h minderbinder]

Whether it rises to the level of "criminal" or not, it is accused wrongdoing - if they can get this case rolling so fast, they should be able to deal with Troopergate before election day.

[TheIndependenceParty]

Perhaps not criminal, but very likely impeachable from reliable reports. If Palin used her office for personal purposes, i.e. to retaliate against her ex-brother-in-law through her oversight of the State Safety Officer, ... she might be looking for other work soon.

[Awash]

This guy hacked a email account and he's already indicted. What happened to the three guys in Colorado with the sniper rifles, scopes, spotters scopes, body armor, and the large amount of ammno?
Are they even still in jail? Or did they get a free pass and a medal from law enforcement? Have they been on with Sean Hannity? Somebody please update on this.

[Mdazes]

You are so right . The Americans people got absolutely no feed back on the three guys in Colorado.

[AzRealProgressive]

Or the people in Minnesota with the bombs, and the plans to burn up stuff. A whole bunch of them were arrested, what hapened to them?

[TheIndependenceParty]

Could it be they worked for people who could "get them excused from class early?" Perhaps the story was ginned up simply in an attempt to reduce the turnout for Obama's speech at the Convention, ... and make him look a fool as he spoke to an empty stadium. In today's America anything is possible.

Thankfully he was safe, the stadium was full, and the response was magnificent.

There should be an accounting, and yet the Secret Service indicated they were not a credible threat if I recall correctly. Say Waaaah? "... sniper rifles, scopes, spotters scopes, body armor, and the large amount of ammno" and not so much as an Amber alert.

[pahpah25]

SOOOOOO..A KID WHO HACKS AN E-MAIL ACCOUNT IS ARRESTED.........BUT A SUPPORTER AT A PALIN RALLY WHO YELLS 'KILLHIM' REFERRING TO A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE'.IS STILL WALKING AROUND LOOSE?WHO IS THE BIGGER DANGER TO SOCIETY?

[luvobama]

No kidding!!

[JulieSA]

The Secret Service says they're looking into the guy at the rally.

[AzRealProgressive]

Good point. Individual idiots are the job of the secret service, not the McCain campaign.

[j.gold]

Spammers have stolen my account and used it to send out spam more then once. How come they aren't in jail?

One law for us, another one for them!

[jdw1981]

It's ironic how many people are defending this prosecution (or rather, persecution) when the federal government and the telecom companies have brazenly broken the law and violated the Constitution time and time again, wiretapping anyone and possibly everyone, and doing who knows what else. You people don't mind THAT, but you are upset about someone doing essentially the same thing to poor little Sarah? No wonder our country is the way it is now.

David Kernell acted as a whistleblower exposing that Palin was illegally using a personal email account to conduct government buiness. He only did what was right.

[JulieSA]

The emails he stole proved that she was NOT using that account improperly. He broke the law, and he will pay for it. It would be illegal if someone stole Obama's email too.

[paganmist]

He didn't show all of the e-mails. He showed a portion of them, as well as a list of addresses/names in the inbox, SOME of which were government names.

An Alaska governor doesn't have the luxury of conducting e-mails between a private account and a government account. It is undeniably improper.

[jazzdad51]

Too bad he doesn't have executive priviledge.

[anthead]

What would the charges be for hacking a Yahoo email account, its not like he hacked the Government email system.

[Hondo 2008]

I don't know, but I could try to hack your email account and find out what the charges would be.

[enochsmoky]

I would have loved to have seen the Huffington Post's headline if the perpetrator had been a Republican. The headline would not have read "Palin email hack: Man indicted" it would have read "Palin email hack: Republican's son indicted." The subheading would have said "Republicans continue unrelenting assault on civil liberties." When will the Saturday Night Live skit on the Democrats involvement in the Fannie and Freddie mess be posted here? It really skewers such Democratic saints as Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and George Soros. Can't all the true believers handle the truth.

[realiybased2]

I believe the act of the Republicans hacking citizens private phone lines is probably more serious than hacking email. But by your blog, I suppose you approve that.

[luvobama]

Of course he does. it's the repub way

[tre]

The headline would have been: "Republican indicted for hacking email of innocent mother of special needs child. Execution scheduled for tomorrow at noon. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi promise to outlaw the Repulican Party to prevent future occurances."

[Myshkin57]

What's not getting much attention, though, is that those emails should have been sent through a publicly accessible email account in the first place. The kid was wrong in what he did, but we should have had access to many of those emails without someone hacking into them.

[AlaskasRevenge]

This is too SHOCKING! Even the main stream media won’t publish it!

“…..very embarrassing for McCain and the GOP.”

THE 2006 VETTING OF SARAH PALIN

***** The complete 63 page report *****
http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/palin-2006-vetting.pdf

[HC4BO]

O'really of Faux Noise must be happy about this news ...

The hetard was pushing for an indictment as if someone was murked ....

[Sisto]

Why hasn't Palin been indited for using her personal email for government business? Perhaps the FBI thinks she's special!

[SeanHannity4Obama]

I asked myself the same question

[JulieSA]

She didn't use this account for government business. The emails the kid stole prove this.

[ali-remixamerica]

She has admitted many times that she used a personal account for govt. business.

From an Alaska paper -- although there are MANY other citations:

"Palin routinely uses a private Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business. Others in the governor's office sometimes use personal e-mail accounts, too."

[Harry1980]

not all e-mail have been made public..I as why not?

[dezzertguy]

Dems are tough players and stretch rules as much as they can. Look at ACORN in Neveda. For a son to pick up the Dem way is understandable. I hope he will learn that rules have meaning and that just because Dems do not follow rules, does not mean it is right to do so.

[luvobama]

Let me get this straight. All Dems don't follow the rules?

Hmm. Does that mean all repubs are ped o ph iles, l ia rs and cr oo ks?

Boy i feel sorry for repub kids.

What does this say about the peggy teen ager from Alaska's mom?

[luvobama]

I meant preggy.

[moreupnorth]

What about ACORN? All that was done was a raid on their offices. They have not been charged with anything!

Why are you so anti-American in not believeing in innocence until proven guilty?

[tre]

Do you believe in innocence until proven guilty? Then, do you believe George Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, et. al. are truly innocent?