Three More Charges In Sarah Palin Hacking Case

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A University of Tennessee student charged with hacking into the personal e-mail account of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential nominee, pleaded not guilty Monday to three more charges in the case.

A magistrate agreed to push back the trial of David Kernell, the son of a Democratic Tennessee legislator, from May to October.

Kernell allegedly gained access to Palin's account in September by correctly answering a series of personal security questions.

The added counts are fraud, unlawful electronic transmission of material outside Tennessee and attempts to conceal records to impede an FBI investigation.

"The facts of the case have not changed, only the theories of law the government is pursuing have changed," defense attorney Wade Davies said. He plans to seek dismissal of the new charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle did not immediately return a call for comment on the new charges.

The initial charge of intentionally accessing Palin's account without authorization, unsealed in October, carried a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Davies contended it should have been a misdemeanor.

Following the original indictment, Kernell pleaded not guilty and was released on several conditions, including staying away from his computer except for school work.

The superseding indictment, filed Feb. 3, included the original charge and the three additional ones.

Both the original and the superseding indictments said Kernell tapped into the Alaska governor's widely publicized Yahoo! e-mail account, reset the password and was able to read the contents, make screenshots and post his exploits on the Web using the nickname "rubico." The indictment said at least one other person followed a similar path into Palin's account.

Kernell is the son of longtime state Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis.

In court filings, Davies has questioned whether a search warrant for Kernell's apartment authorized investigators to confiscate his laptop and review its contents. Prosecutors responded that "the seizure of the defendant's computer had many justifications."

Comments

[aliceinks]

10:42 AM on 03/10/2009

He committed a crime and should be held responsible for it.

Good to see all the love for Sarah is still out there. : -)

[DCinFrance]

10:30 AM on 03/10/2009

Just reading these replies, I have to ask: Is it a crime? If the answer is yes, then everything else is simply irrelevant. What defense is it to say because THAT person killed 5 people, I should be forgiven my crime of killing one!

[tierone]

11:03 AM on 03/10/2009

Email hacking is equal to killing? Who knew.

[DCinFrance]

12:57 PM on 03/10/2009

Please. An over the top exaggeration to make a point. If it was democratic candidate's email that was hacked, we'd be screaming for blood.

[kareemachan]

09:43 AM on 03/10/2009

"Kernell allegedly gained access to Palin's account in September by correctly answering a series of personal security questions."

Well, maybe if she had used a little more intelligence in setting up her questions, he wouldn't have been able to get in so easily.

[DCinFrance]

12:58 PM on 03/10/2009

A bit of blaming the victim? If she didn't dress like such a ...

[Right-turn]

07:41 AM on 03/10/2009

"son of a Democratic Tennessee legislator"

Somebody please do a tax audit on Dad also.

[hortonhearsawho2]

09:51 AM on 03/10/2009

Seen Levi ?

[jashu51]

09:55 AM on 03/10/2009

Are they waiting until Trigger starts kindergarten before they tie the knot (around his neck)?

[Peresphone]

01:31 AM on 03/10/2009

Hmmm Don Young

[Peresphone]

01:30 AM on 03/10/2009

HmmmmJack

[Yermammy]

12:41 AM on 03/10/2009

It's good Sarah doesn't use homing pigeons anymore. She'd get confused and shoot her incoming mail.

[mainiac1]

09:19 AM on 03/10/2009

LOL ...GOOD ONE!

[E3grnMaRine]

12:24 AM on 03/10/2009

Sarah is the "hack".

[Aj Sol]

12:20 AM on 03/10/2009

So only Sarah Palins email privacy matters? What about the probably millions of emails and tapes of American citizens? I guess it only matters if you ran on a platform of hipocrisy as did she.

[roald]

10:30 AM on 03/10/2009

No everyone's matters. We should be investigating all incidents, including this one.

[raven29520]

12:16 AM on 03/10/2009

Funny how only non-government and non-banking officials are getting punished these days! This makes me sick. I agree with laws, but they should apply to all or not to any! This is loonacy!

[StevieNitro]

12:15 AM on 03/10/2009

Tell that kid I will hire him for my network security team. 1st... because he was able to do it. 2nd... for showing how ignorant a gov of a state can be. and 3rd... just to get him on the correct side of the crime.

[tel8034]

11:39 PM on 03/09/2009

Consider the source ........... Tennessee, a super duper RED state.

Consider the defendent ............ The son of Democratic legislator.

Where was assistant US attorney Greg Weddle when Bush and Cheney were ILLEGALLY hacking into millions of computers and ILLEGALLY wire tapping millions of phones belonging to NON-terrorists (AKA USA citizens with NO KNOWN ties to anything or anyone)?

[EyeDoc007]

12:11 AM on 03/10/2009

Consider what happened ............ He did it.

[bannorhill]

08:53 AM on 03/10/2009

Consider the charges..........Federal charges in a Federal court.

Consider the additional charges.............Filed under the current Democrat administration. A super duper BLUE administration.

[HST]

11:05 PM on 03/09/2009

I hope the prosecutors in Palin's "troopergate" , misuse of power and those looking into how her house was built, exhibit the same zeal for indictments.

[MicrowavableJohnnyCakes]

10:35 PM on 03/09/2009

So the GOP wanted this woman one 72 year old heartbeat away from protecting our country and the ditz can't even think up decent passwords for her e-mail that a teenager who never met her couldn't figure out. Yeah... Plain 2012!

[ScaryBob]

10:34 PM on 03/09/2009

Kernell is a hero.

[roald]

11:00 PM on 03/09/2009

Kernell is a criminal as all people who break into e-mail accounts by whatever means without a court order.

I cannot understand why a group of law-abiding citizens would condone breaking the law and trying to justify it by the "other side" doing the same, but worse.