Bristol Palin: Hacked Email Led To Harassing Calls

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Bristol Palin said she received countless phone calls and hundreds of text messages when her cell number was posted online after her mother's e-mail account was hacked. Only one really scared her.

Palin testified Wednesday that she was 17 and pregnant in 2008 when her mother Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account was invaded after the former Alaska governor was picked as the Republican vice presidential candidate. Bristol Palin said she worried when a bunch of boys called, claiming they were at her front door and wanted in.

"We live in the middle of nowhere in Alaska ... in the middle of the woods," Palin said during the trial of a 22-year-old former college student accused of hacking the account. The trial continues Thursday and could last more than a week. Sarah Palin also was subpoenaed to testify but it was unclear if and when she would.

Bristol Palin said her number was included with a photo she snapped of her brother Trigg taking his first bite of solid food and e-mailed to her parents while they were away during the 2008 presidential campaign.

"I saw a screen shot on the TV," she said.

"I think it was Fox News," she said of the station for which her mother is a paid political analyst.

David Kernell was an economics major at the University of Tennessee when he was accused of hacking the account. He is on trial on charges of identity theft, wire fraud, intentionally accessing Palin's e-mail account without authorization and obstructing an FBI investigation. If convicted, he could be sent to prison for up to 50 years.

Kernell has not been accused of the harassing calls, e-mails and text messages that Bristol Palin and a former aide described to jurors. Kernell's attorney Wade Davies claims the e-mail intrusion was just a prank and has attempted to show the account was accessible to other people, was sometimes used for political and official messages and was not just private.

Testimony with Tennessee ties was given by Sarah Palin's aide. Frank Bailey of Anchorage, Alaska, a former Palin campaign aide who also worked in her state administration, testified he set up the e-mail account for Palin just after she was picked to be the running mate of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

Bailey said after being notified about someone breaking in Palin's e-mail in September 2008, he had to act quickly to block further intruders. Bailey testified that he acted on a suggestion by his wife that he build a new password out of Peyton Colts.

"Just like Peyton Manning?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle jokingly asked Bailey.

Bailey said his wife is more a sports fan than he is and he at the time didn't realize any connection between Manning and the state where the Indianapolis Colts quarterback remains beloved since his years as a star at the University of Tennessee.

"I'm embarrassed to say I did not," Bailey said.

Authorities say Kernell answered personal security questions about Palin, such as her having met her husband, Todd, in Wasilla, Alaska. Kernell is accused of resetting the e-mail account password, making screenshots of contents and posting some information on public websites.

Bristol Palin testified that she had to turn her phone over to investigators and went without cell phone service for weeks because she couldn't sign a new contract as a 17-year-old.

She said her number "wouldn't have been posted if it hadn't been hacked into."

After court ended for the day, Kernell was asked by WMC-TV of Memphis what he thought of Bristol Palin.

He replied, "She's not my type."

Ivy Frye, a longtime friend of the Palin family in Wasilla, Alaska, and former special assistant to Palin when she was governor, testified that the posting of the screen shots led to numerous "vile" and "vulgar" e-mails being sent to the accounts of Palin's children and other relatives and friends. Frye said all their e-mail addresses were exposed.

Jurors also have heard from a records manager with Yahoo! and from Kernell's former University of Tennessee roommate, who said Kernell was politically opposed to Palin, but never said anything about wanting to hurt her and her running mate, Sen. John McCain.

Comments

[Bobio]

12:24 PM on 05/26/2010

Up to this point the only place you could find her phone number was on the walls of men's restrooms in Wasilla Alaska.

[Stephen Grayce]

12:01 PM on 05/18/2010

So she emailed her parents her phone number with a pic of her son, I mean, er, brother, eating? Only a Palin would be ditzy enough not to remember that Mom and Dad probably had her phone number already. ;)

[exile]

09:31 PM on 05/17/2010

Bristol Palin testified that
she had to turn her phone over to investigators and went without cell phone service for weeks because she couldn't sign a new contract as a 17-year-old.

OMG
no freakin way

oh
who pays 30k to listen to this level of decision makin ability ??

[Luv2Purple]

11:41 AM on 04/27/2010

“Hey you right wing partisans - read this!
ARTICLE HEADLINE: Former Oil and Gas Commissioner's Missteps Went Beyond His Partisan Work. By RICHARD MAUER

Sarah Palin never thought of herself as an investigator. Yet there she was, hacking uncomfortably into Randy Ruedrich's computer, looking for evidence that the state Republican Party boss had broken the state ethics law while a member of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
The next week, when Palin went back to work at the AOGCC, she noticed that Ruedrich had removed his pictures from the walls and the personal effects from his desk. But as she and an AOGCC technician worked their way around his computer password at the behest of an assistant attorney general in Fairbanks, they found his cleanup had not extended to his electronic files.
The technician "said it looked like he tried to delete this, but she knew a way to go around and get some of the deleted stuff," Palin said in an interview. "I didn't know what I was looking for, but I was there."
Palin found dozens of e-mail messages and documents stacked up in trash folders, many showing work Ruedrich had been doing for the Republican Party and others showing how closely he worked with at least one company he was supposed to be regulating.

LOCK HER UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY!!! I'm just sayin...if there's justice in this world!!!”

[amaboss52]

03:00 PM on 04/24/2010

Guess old $arah shouldnt have exploited her children by dragging them around with her in the first place. Bristol is no saint but it is sad she had to pay the price of having a stupid, dishonest mom.

[BetterDays]

10:54 AM on 04/24/2010

Bristol, I feel sorry for you. You are a pawn in your mother's games.

You had Secret Service detail at the time! They had a boat patrolling your lake. Security detail followed you everywhere. You had your fiance by your side. You don't live in the middle of nowhere. You live a short distance from a major highway close to town. I doubt that a few stupid teenagers posed a threat. If they did pose a threat, why is there no record of such a threat?

Furthermore, if the VP nominee and her staff can't determine how to get her daughter a new phone number or establish a new email account, it would be very difficult to make determinations on truly complicated matters for the nation. Of course, we already knew this.

Your aunt, your brother, your sister and your mother have been given a pass on so many misdeeds time and again. Why do you believe a kid who guesses a password should be so vilified? The following blogs detail the criminal acts of your family that haven't reached the light of day....

http://frozenjustice.blogspot.com/2010/04/palin-crime-family-hypocracy-vs-david.html

http://www.themudflats.net/2010/04/24/palins-pinnacle-of-hypocrisy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheMudflats+%28The+Mudflats%29

[1liberalconspirator]

05:34 AM on 04/24/2010

"Ivy Frye, a longtime friend of the Palin family in Wasilla, Alaska, and former special assistant to Palin when she was governor, testified that the posting of the screen shots led to numerous "vile" and "vulgar" e-mails being sent to the accounts of Palin's children and other relatives and friends. Frye said all their e-mail addresses were exposed."

-Yeah, umm if your in the public eye you can expect that you going to receive numerous vile and vulgar emails. In particular if you are running for a public office at the national level. Will the comedy writers also receive 50 years? Where is the damage? Her emails were not privileged communications due to her role as a public person and she can't really claim privilege due to her inclusion of her husband among other choices she made while sending the emails, so where is the damage? Does Alaska not have a public records law?

She was hacked. It did not influence an election. It did not amount to much at all (much like her campaign) so let's all move on.

[BetterDays]

10:56 AM on 04/24/2010

If they did, indeed, receive vile emails, they pale in comparison to the vile and hateful threats received by the Alaskan bloggers who writes anything about Palin.

[notateapartier]

02:48 PM on 04/23/2010

I throw up every time I see Bristols face.

[Squeglen]

01:26 PM on 04/23/2010

Was she answering those calls in between the trists in her bedroom?

[JoeBlough]

02:49 PM on 04/23/2010

She broke her vajayjay and now she's a role model?

[booki]

12:20 PM on 04/23/2010

i hope the guy gets a slap on the wrist,
and lots of hours of community service......
teaching computer lessons , in an old folks home.

[1liberalconspirator]

05:21 AM on 04/24/2010

Seniors do need skilled computer assistance.

[Mattcat25]

11:58 AM on 04/23/2010

Why is Palin pursuing this matter?
And, using the Socialized Governmental Court System to impose judgement in a private matter of Personal Freedoms?

Don’t ya know???

[Vince Weiguang Li]

01:25 PM on 04/23/2010

Makes about as much sense as telling a rape victim that she had it coming because her dress was too short.

Good for you, stand on principle! Would you be so forgiving if President Obama's email was hacked a Republican operative and Shasha or Malia got threatening and obscene e mails from Tea Party and Beck viewers?

Or is is your sense of justice colored by your politics?

[booki]

02:17 PM on 04/23/2010

is your sense of 'justice' "colored" by your politics.?
the entire issue was handled improperly, we should not even know about this..
let alone the daughter be able to read any messages, or texts.
i would hardly equate Obama's email to Palins yahoo account?

[treadway123]

04:41 PM on 04/23/2010

Obama is a president, an I am sure he is smart enough to keep his personal act. seperated from any Gov. bussiness. Big difference, an remember Palins own son of destroying school property while intoxicated? Do u see him in prison? How about willows public intoxication, minors in possesion----what happen to that?

[JUSTSAYING--]

11:55 AM on 04/23/2010

Why didn't the McCain people make sure the Palin family had secure cell phones during the campaign?? They made sure to scrub everything about Palin off the internet. Was she even vetted or did they just say , she's a women lets take her ! Looks like a lot of stupid went on during that campaign and we're still seeing the garbage floating around.

[treadway123]

04:44 PM on 04/23/2010

Levi Johnson mom gave Bristol/Levi Cell phones during this time! Levi sister's face book says she was never alone, an that she lied under oath! I am wondering just how Neglectful palin has been of her family, an what danger she put them in? From Bristols act. they lived in the middle of no where, she preg.,she cares for trigg while family thousands miles away, an she no way to contact an adult>

[1liberalconspirator]

05:42 AM on 04/24/2010

Good point. Of course her mother would tell her that she could see her from wherever she was on the campaign trail.

[Mattcat25]

11:54 AM on 04/23/2010

D. Kernell should be made to be without HIS cell Phone service for WEEKS!
OMG, WTF, LOL, IDK....

[booki]

11:43 AM on 04/23/2010

anyone know what was difficult to comprehend.......
changing your email address and cell phone number?
very simple.....
sounds as tho she was getting off, on all her hits.

i would never had read them........i would have contacted my computer and cell providers, and they would have been more than accomodating ............
to change her address and phone number.

just like it is ok for mom sarah to lie............
that is one screwed up family.

[Debra Lewis]

11:32 AM on 04/23/2010

Children rely on their parents to protect and nurture them. Sarah Palin has thrown this girl under the bus with the rest of her children. If you could not tell that there was something significantly wrong with Bristol Palins demeanor during the Oprah interview, maybe common sense pshy. is not your stron suit. While I feel sorry for Bristol, she will age into the same type of woman her mother is, because she is willfully weak. At that time, the sympathy for this girl will wane and she is going to be the butt of many unkind comments. She should throw away the suntan lotion and start applying a lotion that will increase the thickness of her skin.