Posted on 04/30/2010 4:20:41 PM PDT by Cindy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tennessee Man Convicted of Illegally Accessing Sarah Palin’s E-mail Account and Obstruction of Justice
David C. Kernell, 22, was convicted by a federal jury in Knoxville, Tenn., today for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and obstruction of justice, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced.
After a week-long trial, a jury found Kernell guilty of one count of misdemeanor unauthorized access to obtain information from a computer and one count of obstruction of justice. The jury found Kernell not guilty of wire fraud. The jury could not reach a verdict on the identity theft charge and the judge declared a mistrial as to that charge.
According to evidence presented at trial, on Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, a resident of Knoxville, obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Palin’s personal e-mail account by resetting the account password. Evidence showed that after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information. Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public Website. Kernell also posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others.
Evidence at trial showed that Kernell became aware of a possible FBI investigation on Sept. 16, 2008, following the illegal entry into the e-mail account. The evidence further showed that Kernell began to delete records and documents with the intent to impede an anticipated FBI investigation.
At sentencing, Kernell faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for unauthorized access and 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for obstruction of justice.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krotoski currently detailed to the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. CCIPS Trial Attorney Josh Goldfoot provided significant assistance. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Knoxville field office.
he also should make very public apologies and private apologies to Sarah Palin....
cheery, you’re right, and that’s precisely what’s missing!
He’s not uttered one word of remorse!
He’s a smart ass punk.
LOL. You know I meant CHERRY -
The sticky part is that David Kernell appeared to agree to cooperate with the FBI, and then renigged on the agreement.
No official statement of such, but much evidence in their actions.
I do not look for him to receive anything like the maximum sentence, but there is strong evidence he intended to harm Sarah Palin’s campaign. I was hoping they could make a connection between someone in the Obozo campaign and the kid. It obviously did not happen.
Seems like a fair jury finding to me. I’m very pleased, because I thought his politician daddy might find a way to buy them off.
Looking back to yesterday’s announcement, it would seem that they found him guilty on those two charges, got instructions from the judge, and then decided to let him off on the others.
Well, his new cellmate Bubba Big Boner, will make sure he never gets to cover it up...
Well we can be sure that this punk will never be issued any lipstick, don’t want there to be any tell tale marks left behind.
I bet he doesn’t do a day in jail.
Or time in a country club prison. But the felony conviction is not to be shrugged off. It’s a black mark.
Shame they didn’t tie his rat dad into this. His father is a well know operative in the rat party.
You’re gonna get arrested if you keep misspelling “reneged”.....the way you have it the past couple of days is gonna get you on a database you don’t want to be.
My guess at the sentence: same as Martha Stewart, five months in, five months home confinement.
After that, as a "made man" he can go directly to work for the DNC.
Sorry, my spelling is awful. But you are right that I should be more careful. Too often I type in hurried replies.
Thanks for advice. No offense meant.
You are right, he is no hacker. But a hacker want-to-be.
He did however state in exchanges that he did this to “get the goods” on Palin. He acted with intent to harm her campaign.
I read his admin notes from the cached version of his website and he mocked Palin because she went to Church and had all those children. He called Palin a C___, the same word that the netroots used on their t-shirts about her. He stated how much he loved Obama, almost as much as the teletubbies.
The kid is very immature, politically brinwashed and ethically rudderless.
He will not serve a long sentence, but he made a big mistake to not cooperate with the FBI as he agreed in the beginning.
Yes. It sounds like he received bad legal advice. I wonder if his attorneys were counting on nullification from Palin-haters on the jury.
I think they thought given enough time this would simply go away. Bad judgement.
I think David Kernell wanted to be a netroot. He had a fantasy that he could act like that and the Dems would be endeared to him. He MUST have been influence by them, too many similarities in foul language and attitude.
Here are a series of FReeper articles on the E-mail Hacker, David Kernell and Sarah Palin ...
Local lib media here in SF hasn’t uttered a word.
You can bet if this punk was found “not guilty” it would’ve been top of every newscast.
The MSM is nothing but complicit hacks for the DNC
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