Palin E-Mail Hacker Gets a Year in Jail

No doubt this will set off a fresh round of Palin Derangement Syndrome on the left.

A Former University of Tennessee student has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for hacking into Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's email, prosecutors said Friday.

David Kernell, 22, was arrested in 2008, during the U.S. presidential elections in which Palin was the Republican Vice Presidential candidate.

Kernell was found guilty of obstruction of justice and unauthorized access to a computer, but was acquitted on a charge of wire fraud.

While defense attorney Wade Davies pushed for probation, arguing that Kernell used publicly available information to guess his way into the e-mail in a prank, Palin had previously stated that an "illegal action like this" is not a prank, considering its impact during a presidential election.

Palin Email Hacker Convicted on Two Counts

May he be punished to the full extent of the law.

He'll probably wind up on probation.

A federal jury this afternoon convicted Sarah Palin e-mail intruder David C. Kernell of felony destruction of records to hamper a federal investigation and misdemeanor unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer.

The jury acquitted Kernell, 22, of wire fraud.

It remains deadlocked on felony identity theft.

It’s unclear if U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips will order the jurors, in their fourth day of deliberations, to continue.

The judge will decide sentencing.

The obstruction of justice conviction makes Kernell a felon.

The case is a mistrial on count one, the charge of identity theft.

The jury found Kernell not guilty on count 2, the charge of wire fraud.

Unauthorized access is a misdemeanor lesser included charge from count three, which accused Kernell of felony unlawful computer access.

The jury found Kernell guilty of obstruction of justice. That carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, with a fine up to $250,000.

Kernell's father is a Democrat who's served in the Tennessee House since 1974.

Tennessee Student Facing More Charges in Palin Hacking

I seriously doubt this punk will ever do a minute of jail time since his daddy is an elected Democrat, but it's worth seeing him squirm a bit.

A U.S. District judge re-arraigned David Kernell in court Monday morning because he now faces not one but four counts in an internet fraud case.

The University of Tennessee student is accused of accessing former vice-presidental candidate Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mail account.

The 21-year-old student allegedly figured out the answers to security questions to access the Alaska Governor's private Yahoo e-mail account.

Also in court Monday, Kernell agreed that re-setting his trial to October 27th would not violate his right to a speedy trial.

The federal trial was previously postponed until May to give both sides time to analyze computer evidence in the case.

The indictment describes the four counts, all linked to events alleged to have happened September 16, 2008, when Kernell was a 20 year old student.

He's now accused of stealing Palin's online identity, transferring that information to others outside Tennessee, committing graud [sic] related to computers and obstructing an FBI investigation into the matter.

If convicted on counts two and four of the new indictment, Kernell faces a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and 5 years of supervised release.

If convicted on counts one and three of the new indictment, Kernell faces a maximum punishment of 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and 3 years of supervised release.

Kernell Indicted in Palin E-Mail Hacking

This story completely disappeared from the radar the last couple of weeks becasue, after all, it was only a Republican getting their mail hacked. If it were a Democrat, it would be portrayed as worse than Watergate and a grave threat to America.

Anyway, this punk David Kernell, son of a Democrat elected official, has now been indicted.

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

I'll be breathlessly awaiting all the weepy editorials from the left bemoaning this outrageous invasion of privacy.

The Associated Press conveniently omits mentioning his father is an elected Democrat. He could face five years. He'll probably get five days and a White House internship under Barack Obama.

Previously.

Update: Here's the indictment from The Smoking Gun.

More from Michelle Malkin and Hot Air. Thanks to Cold Fury, Dr. Rusty and The Other McCain for the links.

Palin Hacking Probe: FBI Serves Kernell With Search Warrant

This story seems to have quickly fallen off the media radar, though now the FBI has stepped up the investigation into David Kernell by serving him with a search warrant earlier today.

The FBI is stepping up its investigation into the hacking of personal e-mail of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin by a University of Tennessee student.

A person who identified himself as a witness tells 10 News that agents with the FBI served a federal search warrant at the Fort Sanders residence of David Kernell early Sunday morning. Kernell lives in the Commons apartment complex at 1115 Highland Ave.

David Kernell is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis.

A Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed there has been "investigatory activity" in Knoxville regarding the Palin case, but she said there are no publicly available search warrants, and no charges have been filed.

A separate law enforcement source confirmed to 10 News that a search warrant was served on Kernell's apartment.

According to the witness, several agents arrived at The Commons of Knoxville around midnight.

They presented their badges upon entering Kernell's apartment, where several students were having a party, and took down their names.

What a day in Knoxville. First the Vols get their doors blown off, then the FBI shows up.

Via the LGF links.

Gateway Pundit links. Thanks!

Palin Hacker Sought to 'Derail Her Campaign'

So let's see. Someone wanted to derail Sarah Palin, and criminally hacked into her email.

I'll go out on a limb and suggest this person was a Demmocrat. Just a hunch.

A person taking credit for hacking into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo account claims to have read the Republican vice-presidential candidate's e-mails to find something that "would derail her campaign" after using publicly available biographical data to reset her password, according to a posting on the Internet.

"There was nothing there, nothing incriminating — all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor," the person wrote in a message on 4chan.org that was later erased, according to Wired.com, which copied the account on its Web site.

Put nothing past the dirty trick Democrats. When you have their presidential nominee openly slandering citizens, it's no stretch to think they wouldn't resort to criminal tactics to get what they want.

Most of the media seems curiously disinterested in pursuing this case. Had Barack Obama's email been hacked it would be 24/7 coverage on every network, there would be thousands of reporters hunting down the perpetrator and the GOP would be blamed even in the absence of evidence.

But when it's a Republican being violated, hey, that's fine.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Democrat whose son is the focus of the investigation is playing dumb.

When asked whether his son is involved in the case in any way, Mr. Kernell said: "I can't talk about my son. I can just tell you no one has contacted him or I about this."

The breach came to light Wednesday after several screen shots revealing e-mails and personal photos from Mrs. Palin's account were found circulating on the Web. The FBI and the U.S. Secret Service are investigating.

The McCain campaign verified the hack on Wednesday, calling it a "shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of the law."

UT-Knoxville Student and Son of Elected Democrat the Focus of Palin Hack Probe

Here's the latest on the Sarah Palin e-mail hacking from The Tennessean.

State Rep. Mike Kernell confirmed Thursday that his son, a University of Tennessee-Knoxville student, is at the center of heated Internet discussion into the hacking of the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, confirmed that it is his 20-year-old son, David, who is being widely named on Internet blogs and chatrooms in connection with an unfolding story about Palin's hacked e-mail accounts.

The FBI and the Secret Service started a formal investigation on Wednesday into the hacking.

David Kernell is a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Mike Kernell said he spoke to his son on Thursday, as he does on a regular basis.

Shocking that some punk son of a Democrat would be up to these dirty tricks, no? I'm sure daddy's connections will prove useful if indeed this kid was the one who did it.

Gateway Pundit is all over this. More at Computerworld, which notes Michelle Malkin and her coverage. Nice to see those sleuths from the leftwing blogs are all over this. More also from Hot Air, The Jawa Report. Ace breaks out the flaming skull.

No doubt the media will be eager to play up the connection to an elected Democrat.

Update: Earlier today we noted the AP's belligerent attitude toward a request from the Secret Service. Well, it's even worse than you can imagine.

The AP publicized Palin’s other personal e-mail accounts, as well as her husband’s, which were derived from information obtained illegally by the hacker. Bridis says having Yahoo accounts is an open invitation for hackers and that the victims are to blame for invasions of privacy.

By refusing to cooperate with the federal investigation into the hacking crime and publicizing the Palins’ other personal Yahoo e-mail account information, the AP openly invited hackers to break into those family accounts as well and endorsed illicit activity to raid private family photos.

The issues are inextricably linked, to borrow a phrase, and raise questions about the propriety of AP’s continued flacking for Barack Obama under the guise of objective journalism.