Student indicted for Palin e-mail hack

Summary: The U.S. Justice Department today announced that a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee has indicted the 20-year-old son of a state lawmaker in connection with the compromise of Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account.

Student indicted for Palin e-mail hackThe U.S. Justice Department today announced that a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee has indicted the 20-year-old son of a state lawmaker in connection with the compromise of Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account.

David Kernell (left), who was identified for a while as the alleged hacker, is expected to be arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley.

From the announcement:

The single count indictment, returned on Oct. 7, 2008, and unsealed today, alleges that on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, a resident of Knoxville, obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Palin’s personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password.  According to the indictment, after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell allegedly read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information.  According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public Web site.  Kernell also allegedly posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others.

[ SEE: Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account hijacked, e-mails posted online ]

Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release.

* Photo credit: LA Times.

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  • no luck for you

    seems your daddy wont be able bail you out of this one. Just remember to bring plenty of vaseline with you in prison
    RIAAsucks
    • If Obama is elected

      the boy will get a pardon. If McCain is elected the young man will learn all about "waterboarding" first hand... :)
      GuidingLight
      • Don't be ridiculous.

        This will come out the same either way!
        ShadeTree
        • pardons sometimes weird

          Clinton pardoned people for far worse.
          An admitted terrorist who helped bomb the Pentagon in the 1970?s hosted Obama?s first campaign kickoff dinner when he ran for his first elected office. William Ayres, one of the infamous Weathermen.
          Hates Idiots
          • uh, no. That's just straight ignorance

            Bill Clinton did not pardon Bill Ayers. His case was
            dropped. Why must people like you spread lies like
            this?
            Pathman
          • dismissed, not dropped.

            The prosecutors screwed up otherwise he'd be in jail.
            Joe_Racer
          • Oh, like Cheney?

            or was that obstruction of justice by the entire administration
            fox@...
          • It's true that his case was dismissed, but...

            that was due to illegal actions by the FBI, not to any lack of guilt on Ayers part. And as late as 2001 Ayers was saying that he didn't think they did enough bombing in the 60s.

            But, as he is a marxist and friend of any and all socialists causes. It's OK that he got off and it's OK that he's a personal friend of Obama's. Typical liberal behavior.
            cheesyone
          • ......mmmmmh!

            You seem to imply Obama is a marxist and a socialist becaue he is a liberal........
            zdnet@...
          • Ayers

            Obama has served on the boards of various charities: so
            has Ayers.

            When Obama first ran for office Ayers had a meet and
            greet at his house.

            That's it. They are not friends. And the acts William
            Ayers committed happened when Obama was EIGHT YEARS
            OLD.

            Now unless you want to discuss McCain's warm friendship
            with G. Gordon Liddy, (convicted during WaterGate), I
            suggest you find another hobby horse to ride.
            Jkirk3279
          • Huh?

            I love responding to idiots so consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

            Anyway, 2 questions that you obviously haven't asked:

            #1 If he's an admitted "terrorist" and bombed the pentagon why didn't he go to jail and is instead a Distinguished Professor at University of Illinois in Chicago?

            #2 What on earth does this have to do with Sarah Palin's email?

            Seriously...the guy has admitted he regrets many of the actions they took but the "we didn't do enough" statement was referring to "we" as Americans not doing enough to stop the Vietnam War. Thousands of people were violent and non-violent protestors during Vietnam. If you weren't there, don't assume you have any clue what was going on.
            FatherJ
          • RE: Huh?

            [b]Seriously...the guy has admitted he regrets many of the actions they took but the "we didn't do enough" statement was referring to "we" as Americans not doing enough to stop the Vietnam War.[/b]

            That's BullS**t! This is the exact quote from the Sep 11 2001 Article:
            ''I don't regret setting bombs,'' Bill Ayers said. ''I feel we didn't do enough.''

            Also in the article:
            "So, would Mr. Ayers do it all again, he is asked? 'I don't want to discount the possibility,' he said."

            And:
            [b]Mr. Ayers, who in 1970 was said to have summed up the Weatherman philosophy as: ''Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at,''[/b]

            and he says they didn't do enough of this???
            This guy is an unrepentant terrorist and Obama has VERY strong ties to him.
            mookwai@...
          • RE: Huh?

            BTW...you can read the Sep 11 2001 NY Times article for yourself right here if you don't believe me:

            http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
            mookwai@...
          • Congratulations - you can take things out of context

            Define "very strong ties". If you mean they guy threw him a tea party 8 years ago and contributed $200 to his campaign, then sure.

            Again. What did he go to jail for?
            FatherJ
          • Obama is a terrorist & a Muselum

            Just check Obama's past and you will see he's all of the bad things a true Chritian American is against.
            uncjerry1
          • Wow, you've been drinking way too much FOX Kool Aide Ralph.

            And when the heck did this become the political discussion
            hour anyway?
            nix_hed
          • CNN serves cool-aid too

            and some people are drunk.
            Reality check
          • if you enjoy responding to idiots...

            you must spend a lot of time alone talking to yourself.

            He did have charges brought against him but was let off on a technicality and not further pursued since there had been no loss of life in the attack. Things have really swung his way.

            -do your own homework.

            My only agreement is that this has nothing to do with the article.
            Reality check
          • Ayres was convicted of not a damn thing

            Unlike Charles Keating and G. Gordon Libby
            fox@...
          • Re: Ayres was convicted of not a damn thing

            That's G. Gordon LIDDY Dummy, get your facts straight.
            mookwai@...