David Kernell

David Kernell is the son of Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell. David Kernell is under investigation by federal authorities for allegedly hacking into the Yahoo! email of Sarah Palin.Knoxville News Sentinel: State Rep: Son Focus of Palin E-mail... Rumors (September 18, 2008) On September 22, FBI agents served Kernell with a search warrant in relation the alleged hacking of Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account.

In March 2009, Kernell was given new charges in the incident. In addition to the initial charge of hacking Sarah Palin's e-mail account, Kernell now faces the additional charges of fraud, unlawful electronic transmission of material outside Tennessee and attempts to conceal records to impede an FBI investigation. Kernell plead not guilty to all charges. His court date has been pushed out to October 2009.NewsWeek.com: More charges filed ... (March 9, 2009)

In October 2008, Kernell was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with breaking into Palin's email account. He pleaded not guilty and was released without bond, but has several restrictions from the court. He is not allowed to own a computer and has restricted Internet use.FOX News: Tennessee Man Indicted in Hacking of Palin's E-Mail Account (October 8, 2008)

Kernell allegedly authored a long post on the site 4chan on how he hacked into the Alaskan Governor's account on Yahoo! by answering the secret question on the account: "Where did you meet your husband?" Knowing that Palin had said she met Todd Palin in high school, Kernell allegedly typed in different combinations of words comprising "Wasilla High School" and eventually hit on the answer: "wasilla high." Kernell also knew the governor's birth date and zip code. From there, Kernell allegedly changed Palin's password to "popcorn" and allowed others to access her email.Knoxville News Sentinel: State Rep: Son Focus of Palin E-mail... Rumors (September 18, 2008)