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David C. Kernell, 23, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and obstruction of justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney William C. Killian for the Eastern District of Tennessee. U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips also imposed a three-year term of supervised released. In imposing the prison sentence, Judge Phillips recommended service at Midway Sanction Center, but noted that the Bureau of Prisons would decide where Kernell would serve his sentence. On April 30,...

<p>CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - A former Tennessee college student convicted of hacking Sarah Palin's e-mail account has reported to an unfenced federal prison camp in Kentucky to begin his sentence.</p> <p>A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman said 23-year-old David Kernell reported to the minimum security camp at Ashland, Ky., on Monday to begin a yearlong sentence.</p>

It was just after midnight on September 16 2008. Somewhere in the heart of the United States, a web surfer known only by the nickname ‘Rubico’ flipped open his laptop and stared intently at the screen. It was the height of the US presidential election campaign and the television was filled with images of Sarah Palin, who had been confirmed as John McCain’s running mate. Earlier, Rubico had wondered whether a hunch he’d had about an email security flaw meant it would be possible to access her private messages. It was time to find out. The first piece of the...

ID theft retrial in Palin hacking hinges on appealBy Bill Poovey Fri May 7, 5:57 pm ET CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Prosecutors say a Tennessee man convicted of two federal charges in the hacking of Sarah Palin's e-mail account would be retried on an identity theft charge that left a jury deadlocked only if a defense request for a retrial is granted. David Kernell, 22, was found guilty April 30 in federal court in Knoxville of obstruction of justice and unauthorized access to a computer, but acquitted of a wire fraud charge for hacking Palin's account as she campaigned on the...

A jury in Tennessee today found David Kernell guilty of two of four charges against him. Kernell was found guilty of computer fraud and obstruction of justice. These two charges could carry a combined maximum penalty of up to 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. The jury deadlocked on the charge of identity theft and he was not found guilty on the charge of wire fraud. Prosecutors have reserved the right to hold a new trial for the deadlocked charge of identity theft. The judge in the case will determine the sentencing. Expect Karnell to get off with...

KNOXVILLE - Jurors in the trial of accused Sarah Palin e-mail intruder David C. Kernell were this morning urged to reach a complete verdict in the case. The jurors began their fourth day of deliberations by hearing a special added instruction from U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips. Called an Allen charge in legal parlance, it is commonly called "a dynamite charge." Phillips told the jurors that as they resume deliberating they should each reconsider their positions, but there was no need to rush to a verdict. The jurors reported shortly before 9 a.m. and then retired to resume deliberations...

KNOXVILLE - Federal court jurors reported today they have reached a verdict on three of four charges against former University of Tennessee student David C. Kernell, accused of illegally accessing the private e-mail account of 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. But they also reported they are deadlocked on the first count, a charge of identity theft. Without asking what their verdict is on the other counts, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips sent them back to the jury room to continue deliberating the first count. In their written communication to the judge this afternoon, the jurors said: "Some...

As a federal jury began a third day of deliberating, it shows no sign a verdict is near in the trial of a former University of Tennessee student accused of hacking Sarah Palin's e-mail. There were no smiles among the six women and six men when they came back into court Wednesday after deliberating four felony charges against 22-year-old David Kernell. Palin's e-mail was hacked shortly after she was picked in 2008 to be on the Republican presidential ticket.

KNOXVILLE - A federal prosecutor today urged jurors to convict a former University of Tennessee student of unlocking to the world the door on conservative political star Sarah Palin's private Yahoo! e-mail account. "'I leave it to you,'" prosecutor Mark Krotoski said, quoting David C. Kernell's message on an Internet discussion board. "'I'm not going to ruin someone's life' but I'll give you the key, the pass(word). Instantly individuals from around the United States and around the world are in the account. That's what he wanted." But defense attorney Wade Davies countered that Kernell guessed using publicly available information his...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The attorney for a former University of Tennessee student charged with hacking Sarah Palin's e-mail says the defendant will not testify in his federal trial in Knoxville.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Sarah Palin testified Friday against a former University of Tennessee student charged with breaking into her e-mail account, saying it compromised the main way she had been communicating with her family while she was campaigning in 2008. Palin told jurors she was in Michigan campaigning as the Republican vice presidential candidate when she first learned from a news report that her e-mail had been hacked....

Attorneys for the University of Tennessee student accused of breaking into Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's email account have filed a small forest's worth of court documents in defense of the high-profile suspect. Among them is a motion to prohibit prosecutors from referring to their client as a hacker. The terms "hacker" and "hacking" have no basis under the statute Kernell is accused of violating, a motion filed in US District Court in Knoxville argues. It goes on to seek an order forbidding prosecutors and their witnesses from using those words when referring to the case. "Because of the negative connotations...

University of Tennessee student who is the son of a Memphis legislator has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of hacking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail. David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Palin, the governor of Alaska and Sen. John McCain's running mate, according to U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick. Dedrick said Kernell, the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, turned himself in to federal authorities today for arrest.

Gov. Palin had a second email account, washington post proclaims. "ITS Alaska, said a discreet e-mail system was created from an old campaign account, with access confined to "a group of people, her closest confidantes and co-workers and advisers and the person she sleeps with."

As a federal grand jury convened to hear testimony about the hack of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mail account, the lawyer representing the college student suspected of accessing Palin's messages called his client "a decent and intelligent young man" in a statement issued to the media today. "The Kernell family wants to do the right thing, and they want what is best for their son," said Wade Davies, a partner in the Knoxville, Tenn., firm of Ritchie, Dillard & Davies PC, in the statement. "We are confident that the truth will emerge as we go through the process. David is...

The FBI searched the residence of the son of a Democratic state lawmaker in Tennessee over the weekend looking for evidence linking the young man to the hacking of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Monday. David Kernell, 20, has not returned repeated phone calls or e-mails from the AP since last week. His lawyer said Monday the family is going through a difficult period.

Rusty at TheJawaReport connects the dots between the Obama campaign, a major PR firm, and a variety of baseless anti-Palin smears being circulated by lefty bloggers. As he notes, "Within an hour of this post going up, YouTube videos implicating Ethan Winner were yanked, sockpuppet accounts deleted, and more importantly, the Wikipedia entry on David Axelrod began to edit out mentions of his well-known astroturfing campaigns." If he were totally off base, would everything be coming down off the net? Sure seems like somebody's got something to hide. UPDATE: I like the way Ace puts it: "eswinner" is not sitting...

WBIR tv in Tennessee has the story, tried to post link, but it's Gannett and would not allow. Sorry if it's been posted. It's the Kernell boy

How the Palin email hacker suspect was caught Thomas Lifson September 20, 2008 TGDaily, a tech site, explains how the suspected Palin email hacker, 20-year-old David Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and son of Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell, was caught. He used a proxy server supposed to anonymize his identity, but the owner was quite upset at being used to cover illegal activities, and was also contacted by the FBI. Read the further details here. It is obvious from posts the hacker made that he was fully conscious of breaking the law. There is some...

State Representative Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, made a statement to the Tennessean in which he identified his son, David Kernell, as the hacker who broke in to vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s email address and posted screenshots of the contents on the internet. Mike Kernell represents District 93, which covers the University of Memphis, and parts of south-east Memphis. He told the Tennessean on Thursday that it was indeed his son David who, using the handle Rubico, posted the original screenshots of Governor Palin’s e-mail account after using Yahoo’s password recovery service and a bit of research to find out...

It looks like Sarah Palin wasn’t the only target of an online hacker. Law enforcement officials are investigating claims that the private e-mail accounts of the Republican vice presidential candidate’s family and staff were also compromised. “Yesterday, the Department received a referral alleging that the personal e-mail accounts of Gov. Sarah Palin, her staff, and her family had been unlawfully hacked. The Department is reviewing the matter,” Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said on Thursday. The FBI and Secret Service launched a formal investigation on Wednesday into the hacking of one of Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail accounts. Yahoo! declined to comment...

The Tennessean reports what blogs have been buzzing about all day: The son of state Rep. Mike Kernell has been contacted by authorities in connection with a probe into the hacking of the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Kernell confirmed on Thursday.Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, said his 20-year-old son David had been contacted by authorities investigating the hacking of Palin’s personal email account. AdvertisementThe 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...

John McCain's campaign said Wednesday it has contacted "appropriate authorities" over a report that Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail had been hacked. "This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law," campaign manager Rick Davis said in a statement. "The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment." The statement came hours after a user on the Web site WikiLeaks said he had gained access to Palin's Yahoo e-mail account and gained access....

Memo to law enforcement investigators tracking down who broke into Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account: Gabriel Ramuglia might be a good place to start. The 25-year-old webmaster and entrepreneur is the operator of Ctunnel.com, the browsing proxy service used by the group that hacked into the vice presidential candidate's personal email account and exposed its contents to the world. While he has yet to examine his logs, he says there's a good chance they will lead to those responsible, thanks to some carelessness on their part. "Usually, this sort of thing would be hard to track down because it's Yahoo...

This afternoon, I mentioned an infamous group of hackers whose Internet bulletin board was the gathering place for those who bragged about and publicized the Sarah Palin private e-mail hacking. A tech-savvy reader who monitors the hackers’ site e-mailed me a detailed explanation of how it went down, who was responsible, and how someone with a conscience warned a friend of the Palin family of the crime (language warning):

Gawker, a site best known for its catty observations about important subjects like celebrity clothing faux pas and stalker celebrity sightings, claims to have obtained screen shots from one of Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail accounts. Now, of course, Gawker isn't the New York Times, so it's only reasonable to be skeptical, but there are reasons to think this report is legitimate. According to Gawker, numerous anonymous individuals managed to hack their way into one of Palin's private accounts, gov.palin@yahoo.com. This is a different e-mail than gov.sarah@yahoo.com, which Palin allegedly used to send work-related messages, including e-mails about her involvement...