Economics Major Indicted For Hacking Into Palin's Yahoo E-mail Account

October 9, 2008 9:47 a.m. EST

Knoxville, TN (AHN) - The son of a Democratic Tennessee state representative was indicted on Wednesday for hacking into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account, according to the Justice Department.

David Kernell, son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, "for intentionally accessing without authorization" Palin's Yahoo e-mail account on Sept. 16.

The single-count indictment says Kernell gained access to the account by resetting the password. Prosecutors say he read messages, made screenshots of the e-mail directory and pages showing Palin's personal information. Kernell then allegedly posted the screenshots as well as the new password on a public Web site.

Kernell, a 20-year old economics major at the University of Tennessee, has surrendered to authorities and will be arraigned Wednesday afternoon. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Palin has come under fire for using her Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business, which was revealed after several news outlets requested disclosure of e-mail messages from Palin's official e-mail address under the Open Records Act.

According to Mother Jones, Palin's office initially required payment of fees for a search of her e-mail correspondence, then returned a check worth $5,690.06 with the statement that it was their "responsibility" to gather the e-mail messages.

Palin's office first said it would cost $2,249.46 to conduct a search of her official e-mail account, but later reduced the the fee to $590.06. The office then said that because the governor had used two private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, other state employees' official e-mail accounts would need to be searched, and that the fee would be $960.31 for each state e-mail account searched.