The University of Tennessee student, David Kernell, who is reported to be the person who compromised Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account and released the contents publicly, was apparently served warrant papers early Sunday morning.
David Kernell is reported to have been served search warrant papers Sunday.(Photo:State.ak.us)
According to local news station WBIR (News 10) and The Tennessean, the FBI served search warrant papers to Kernell over the weekend, gaining access to his home and computer in the process.
Laura Sweeney, a Department of Justice spokesperson, told The Tennessean that there was in fact movement on the Palin investigation and that the "investigatory activity" in Knoxville is legit. However, she also told the paper there were no publicly available search warrants, and no charges have yet been filed.
David Kernell is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis, and is said to be the person who performed the recent compromise of the Palin Yahoo account and admitted this in a post on /b/ (4chan sub forum) shortly afterwards.
The tie to the younger Kernell is his screen name 'rubico', which was also used to post the confession:
“Hello, /b/ as many of you might already know, last night Sarah Palin’s Yahoo was “hacked” and caps were posted on /b/, I am the lurker who did it, and I would like to tell the story,” the letter from rubico started.
[Note: Quotes have been cleaned up from the original form.]
“I read though the emails... ALL OF THEM... before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, 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...” Kernell added.
Kernell is said to have used on proxy to help carry out the hack, which is seen in screenshots released of the e-mails. The FBI investigation led to Kernell after his screen name was tied to various other accounts and posts he'd made.
If there is truth to this, then there are some serious charges waiting to be lodged against Kernell (who is a known Democratic supporter). However, because the exact details of the investigation are not public, there is nothing to say that the FBI isn’t just following up on leads.
Presently, most of what ties Kernell to the case is circumstantial unless the Bureau can prove his computer made that post on /b/ or used the proxy service seen in the screen captures.
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