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Son of Democratic Politician Indicted for Hacking Palin's E-mail

October 08, 2008 10:44 AM

David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tenn., for "intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin," the Justice Department says.

Kernell's father is Tennessee State Rep. Mike Kernell, a Democrat.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division, and U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick for the Eastern District of Tennessee, announced today that Kernell turned himself in to federal authorities for arrest and will be arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley.

The indictment states that, on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell "obtained unauthorized access" to Palin’s personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password.

Kernell then allegedly read her e-mails and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information and, per the indictment, posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public Web site. 

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

- jpt

October 8, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (159)

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ok, my friends,
i had to go.but now back to answer typical voters post to me.
first of all I ask all of you not to take the bait.

typical voter is just trying to bait you. and hence continue to distract us from the real issues.

as a black person, when sen. clinton was in the race i was for sen. clinton. because i could see they difference on the issues.
but now that it is obama and mccain/
i can see the difference in obama and mccain.
and the issue that will distinguish each of them and how they will help this country. has nothing to do with the color of their skin.

don't fall for it.
i think most (not all) of the things mccain is saying about and against obama, and the same for mccain supporters they would be saying no matter the color of the opponent.

if you haven't been able to tell the difference in obama and mccain and still hung up on the skin color deal.
you have not been paying attention.

the same for people who keep saying obama is a blank slate, he may have been back in jan. 08.. but if you are still saying that today, you have not been doing your homework, and paying attention.
that is why i cannot understand why mccain would have palin out there saying those things.
our country and economy under george bush has been going steadly downhill.
and all mccain and co can talk about is about obama personally.
mccain is running out of time the election is right around the corner,
for mccain and palin to still be trying to sell to people they don't know obama,
is to try and play their people stupid.
are the people who are buying the line
that mccain and palin are trying to sell that we still don't know obama
stupid?
if you think you still don't know obama
stop standing in behind sarah palin yelling "yeah" and get on the internet and do some independent investigation for yourself.
don't let your important vote be swayed by someone you had hardly heard from two months ago, who is only telling you what she has been told to say.
come on people.
the mavrick has been side-kicking with bush for the last eight years.
mccain has hired the same people who sunk him the last time he ran for president. and they now have him doing to obama what they did to him.
mccain denounced that kind of politics then, but he is right on board with it now. (anything to try and win)
the question now is
will the real mccain please stand up.
please stand up.
he may have been a mavrick in 2000 but his turned into a side-kick of george bush.
mccain must answer for the way bush has messed up this country
no way, no how, no mccain.hrc

Posted by: omg | Oct 8, 2008 2:44:45 PM

Dear Jake Tapper,
I enjoy balanced journalism, so make sure you do as professors ask and identify party affiliation ANY AND EVERY TIME YOU LIST A CONGRESSPERSON! Please. By the way the one in the story is a DEMOCRAT! I wonder if he was a Republican and this happened to Biden would the party label be missed?? I'm SURE it's an oversight, Jake. Keep up the only journalism left at ABC!

Posted by: Tommy | Oct 8, 2008 2:43:50 PM

Sandy B: There are investigations of acorn in every state that could be considered crucial to the election. One could get the idea that the Acorn people are being directed to these states.
Say, didn't Obama use to be a lawyer for these guys?

Posted by: david | Oct 8, 2008 2:36:31 PM

The student who hijacked Palin's E-mail was probably doing just what the Obama supporter thought he should do. It is good to see our laws do protect some of the time.

Posted by: Marla | Oct 8, 2008 2:26:41 PM

"Kernell, if convicted, faces five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three year term of supervised release."
-----
If an un-connected person over 21 had done the same to Obama/Axelrod's private information, he or she would be in "hate crime" territory.

Using a computer belonging to a politically-connected "kid" was a nice touch, though.

Voting for Nader is a darn good idea.

Posted by: Belle Starr | Oct 8, 2008 2:17:32 PM

I am voting for Obama but you people can't see why they are not voting for him. You need to understand that we are in a WAR with our own Americans. People who are racist and won't open their eyes.

Posted by: Typical Voter | Oct 8, 2008 2:06:01 PM

"Typical Voter says we should vote for Obama because he is black."

Typical voter is a troll all. Don't fall for it. He/She is trying to get you worked up and is trying to incite anger. Stay focused. 27 days to go. Eyes on the prize.

Go Obama/Biden/We the People 08!

Posted by: dotheresearch | Oct 8, 2008 2:01:23 PM

"Obama is more likely to encourage people to disregard the law - the point of this blog. He essentially enabled this poor kid who is going to get time in jail. Obama told people to go out and get in peoples face."

How is telling people to exercise their right to free speech encouraging a disregard for the law?

And how is this kid connected to the Obama campaign?

Posted by: Ryan C | Oct 8, 2008 1:53:48 PM

Typical Fascist,

I worked on Richard Boddie's U.S. Senate campaigns back in the 90s. As I am not afflicted with “liberal white guilt”, I don’t apply a racial quota to my vote.
You should try it sometime…

Posted by: RobertP | Oct 8, 2008 1:51:38 PM

Obama is more likely to encourage people to disregard the law - the point of this blog. He essentially enabled this poor kid who is going to get time in jail. Obama told people to go out and get in peoples face.

And we see these lovely marching and singing to Obama. The rest of the world find this just creepy. We read our history books about Germany.

Posted by: Barney's Free Loans | Oct 8, 2008 1:50:15 PM

Typical Voter most of us do not write down the ethnicity of the people for whom we vote. You are saying that we should vote for Obama because we owe it to black people. You can actually say that with a straight face?

I think we should vote for people who took out home they could not afford to repay - that makes as much sense. nonsense.

Posted by: Barney's Free Loans | Oct 8, 2008 1:45:13 PM

But Robert when was the last time you voted for a black? I bet never.

Posted by: Typical Voter | Oct 8, 2008 1:35:28 PM

Typical Voter - who cares about some antic lunatics. We are in the middle of chaos in the 21st century. We have 21st century lunatics who are trying to kill us. And they really do not care who your great grandparents were - as does the vast majority of Americans.

Come on get over it. We need to get to work and work with each other. Lets look at the problems we have today.

Posted by: Barney's Free Loans | Oct 8, 2008 1:29:55 PM

"OK, there were some illegal donations to his campaign"

Speaking of which did McCain return all the fraudulent donations raised by Harry Sargeant?

Posted by: Ryan C | Oct 8, 2008 1:29:39 PM

Typical Voter - no one said Obama is a Muslim. He does however have very good ties with Muslims. That tuns out to be a valuable thing.

OK, there were some illegal donations to his campaign that came from PLO territory and member of Hamas have said they like him.

Posted by: Barney's Free Loans | Oct 8, 2008 1:23:46 PM

"All he did was represent them in a lawsuit against the state to make them comply with some federal voting stuff."

That was the Motor Voter Law.

Republicans HATE people exercising their right to vote.

Especially minorities.

Posted by: Ryan C | Oct 8, 2008 1:21:15 PM

Typical Voter--

As a white person, I am completely offended that you refer to Obama as a black man. He is equally white as he is black. Why is that not mentioned? He's not white, and he's not black.

I think there is some anti-white racism here.

Posted by: whatever | Oct 8, 2008 1:19:04 PM

Barney he is not a Muslim. You are racist. For one Obama ate a hot dog at the rally I saw it at and it was not Hebrew National kind either so it must have been a PORK hot dog. He can't be a Muslim if he eats pork. You are threatened by any black person who is articulate and not speaking Eubonics or killing people. American is pathetic and Obama is the sort of ethnic clensing that this country needs.

Posted by: Typical Voter | Oct 8, 2008 1:18:38 PM

Grey Matter that is a great idea - blame Palin for a democrat breaking the law - not littering, but a felony. Lucky for the kid, as he will probably go to a federal prison.

We cannot condone breaking the law because these people are in your favorite political party. This is how tyrants take over countries.

Posted by: Barney's Free Loans | Oct 8, 2008 1:18:25 PM

Typical Voter says we should vote for Obama because he is black. That is raw and unvarnished racism.

Why not vote for him because of the fine job his grand parents did raising him. One would think given that, he would have a fondness for America and Americans.

Or maybe vote for him because he has better ties to Muslim groups than any other candidate. And can reason and speak effectively.

Posted by: Barney's Free Loans | Oct 8, 2008 1:14:03 PM

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