Palin Email Hacker Gets Light Sentence
- Posted on November 12, 2010 at 6:10pm by
Meredith Jessup
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A former University of Tennessee student who hacked into Sarah Palin’s e-mail account during the 2008 presidential campaign was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in custody, with the judge recommending a halfway house instead of prison.
The sentence by U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips fell short of the 18 months in prison sought by federal prosecutors to send a message to would-be hackers during political campaigns, but went beyond the probation recommended by defense attorneys for 22-year-old David Kernell. The additional day of his sentence will make him eligible for a reduced sentence for good behavior.
Phillips said Kernell should get mental health treatment, based on defense comments Friday that he has had conditions including depression since he was 11.
Kernell hugged family members and friends after hearing the sentence but declined comment as they left the courthouse with his attorney. Kernell had apologized during the sentencing hearing.
“I am not going to make any kind of excuses,” he said. “I’d like to apologize to the Palin family.”
“For the rest of my life I am going to be ashamed, feel guilty for what I have done,” he said.
Palin, who did not attend the sentencing, previously declined comment about Kernell’s punishment and said it should be up to the judge. Her attorney did not answer an e-mail Friday seeking comment.
A jury in late April convicted Kernell of unauthorized access to a protected computer and destroying records to impede a federal investigation. Jurors acquitted him of wire fraud and deadlocked on an identity theft charge. He was an economics major when he deduced the answers to security questions and intruded into Palin’s private e-mail account weeks before the 2008 election.
The former Alaska governor and her daughter Bristol testified at the trial that the hacking, followed by Kernell’s online bragging and providing a password and Palin family telephone numbers to others, caused them emotional hardship.
Palin and her daughter submitted victim impact statements. But in an e-mail, the chief of the U.S. Probation Office in Knoxville declined a request from The Associated Press to view the document.
Prosecutors in a pre-sentence filing said Kernell, a Democratic legislator’s son, had posted online that he found “nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor … And pictures of her family … I read everything, every little Blackberry confirmation … all the pictures, and there was nothing…”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krotoski told the judge the case is unique, with no theft of identity or stealing property but rather an attempt to “influence the democratic process.”
“He wanted to derail a national campaign,” Krotoski said. “The only reason he failed was because he found nothing incriminating in the account.”
Krotoski said the punishment sentence should send a message to deter anyone else who might attempt such hacking in the 2012 elections.
“The message should be clear. You should be subjected to prison time,” he said.
Davies, in asking for probation, told the judge there was no criminal intent or planning and the hacking was “just something that happened on the spur of the moment.”
The judge said in announcing his decision that a “firm but not reactionary sentence is required in this case.”
A statement on Palin‘s’ Facebook page after the trial compared the case to the 1972 Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters that eventually led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
“As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates’ private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election,” the Facebook posting said.
Defense attorneys said Kernell had mental health conditions, which were not brought up at his late-April trial.
“Mr. Kernell‘s development doesn’t necessarily correspond with other people who were born the same year he was,” defense attorney Wade Davies said during the sentencing hearing. Davies said an evaluation has shown that Kernell was “trying to make adult decisions from a child’s perspective.”
Kernell will be allowed to report for the sentence when the Bureau of Prisons decides whether to accept the judge’s recommendation that he be sent to the Midway Rehabilitation Center.
“They usually take the recommendation but they are not required to,” the judge said.
The judge said the maximum possible penalty for destroying or concealing records to impede an investigation is 20 years, and that applying the guidelines to Kernell, the penalty range was between 15 months and 21 months.
Phillips said during the hearing that the sentence was not based on any victim’s notoriety.
“The importance of privacy, regardless of the individual, needs to be protected,” he said.
The chief prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle, said afterward that he is satisfied with the sentence.
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Red Neckerson
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 1:27pmIf it would have been Obama’s email account he would be in federal prison for at least ten years.
Report Post »MG Geo. H. Thomas, USA
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 9:51amYear and a day! I believe that means he can never vote, hold public office or carry a weapon. Sound about right to me.
Report Post »justice
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 4:39amI think this was a young man, but this young man should know difference between right and wrong. if it were a republicans son, he would have had the maxium thrown at him.
Report Post »Doc_Slammin
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 2:35amHe committed a crime, capitalized on it, and now that he’s caught, he’s sorry?
If Kernell was truly sorry, he would plead ‘no contest’ and take his sentence like a man. You do the crime, you do the time.
Report Post »Doc_Slammin
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 2:31amIt must be wonderful to be Queen Pelosi. You have a problem, you call the DOJ and give someone 21 months for threatening you on your answering machine.
However, if you’re one of us… peasants… well, you know..
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 12:39amwonder what soros and the DNC paid the judge. you know he had to be corrupt to let a hacker off like that. the creep admitted he went thru the whole thing trying to find something to derail her campaign.. just think how you’d feel if your stuff was violated like that. .
too bad that pinky little spoiled rich democrat college kid was not thrown in a real PRISON to be some big guy’s GIRLFRIEND for a year.
Report Post »Liberty Honor
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 12:22amThis is such crap why can’t their be like laws that state a sentence should be? Oh wait there is, THE LAW!
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 12:09amShocker!!
Report Post »Ronko
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 11:29pmThis is a joke the man should have been sent to jail for a long time. You don’t hack into peoples stuff its illegal and wrong period. Maybe somebody should hack into this guys stuff then he’ll know how Sarah felt.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 12:43amwould be interesting to know what someone would find, hacking into that corrupt Judge’s own stuff, like who paid him what to let that spoiled rich dem kid off.
Report Post »123gone
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 10:11pmWorth repeating:
Report Post »“The only reason he failed was because he found nothing incriminating in the account.”
oldasdirt
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 9:59pmWas not this kids family involved in dem politics someway?
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 12:41amtotal super-wealthy democrats and in the soros pocket like the rest. how much you want to bet the judge goes golfing with the family.
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 9:57pmThis schmuck could have gotten years instead got months. Must be nice to be
Report Post »the son of a politician. Even if dad is a democrat. He was lucky.
123gone
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 9:38pmAnd if it was Obama’s files that were hacked ?????
Report Post »untameable-kate
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 9:50pmWant to bet on whether the judge is a lib?
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 9:51pmSimple, the person involved would be branded a terrorist or national security risk, charged with high treason and shipped off to the darkest hole in the nation for the rest of their life without contact or appeal to anyone ever again.
Report Post »untameable-kate
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 9:59pmShoot, SNOW they give you that for wanting a toy in your kids happy meal in SanFran.
Report Post »beekeeper
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 11:23pmI think he got what he deserved – I suspect there is something significant in the 1 year and 1 day sentence (probably triggers a requirement to spend a certain amount of time incarcerated, or impacts early release for good behavior decisions) – this conviction for a federal offense will literally follow him around for the rest of his life, impacting employment and other opportunities.
His actual crime, destroying evidence to impede a criminal investigation, is really quite serious – as we’ve learned repeately in the last 30-40 years, right Mr. Nixon? Scooter Libby? etc…
Report Post »KenInIL
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 11:58pmThey killed the guy who looked at Obama’s passport file. No trial. Just Bang!
Report Post »starman70
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 9:08amDemocrat Judge!
Report Post »HKS
Posted on November 13, 2010 at 10:54amCommie justice, Is this a great country or what.
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