Memphis Lawmaker’s Son May Be Linked To Sarah Palin’s Hacking Case

David Kernell, son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker, has become a suspect in Sarah Palin’s email hacking case.

According to reports, allegedly the son of Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee’s House Government Operations Committee is being looked at as a suspect in the Sarah Palin email hacking incident or senseless prank. FBI issued a search warrant on early Sunday morning and searched the apartment of David Kernell, 20, a college student majoring in Economics at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. The FBI searched Kernell’s residence looking for evidence which may link him to being the one who may have gained access to Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account at Yahoo.com.

The search reportedly interrupted a party, in which the FBI took pictures of the apartment for more than an hour. Kernell’s three roommates were subpoenaed to possibly testify this week before a grand jury in Chattanooga for the building case.

Since David Kernell has been targeted as a suspect, Mike Kernell, his father, has declined to speak publicly on his son’s involvement on the matter, but has made it clear that he had nothing to do with it, did not have any knowledge of it and wasn’t in on any thing of this nature.

The person who allegedly hacked Sarah Palin’s account gained access to Palin’s account (gov.palin) by guessing personal answers to security questions about the governor which prompted for a password reset which was set to “popcorn.” Copies of Sarah Palin’s messages were exported and created into zip files and were posted on a number of online sites which revealed messages that she received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.

According to reports the person who claimed to have broke-in to the governors account revealed an email address that was linked publicly to David Kernell and published detailed information on the hacking and stated that the prank was cut short over fear of being investigated by the FBI. According to security experts, the hacker left an easy trail.

After a statement from Laura Sweeny, a Justice Department public-affairs specialist, things seemed to be looking bleek. However, Sweeny confirmed on Monday that there was investigatory activity relating to the Palin hack in Knoxville over the weekend, but no criminal charges have been filed against anyone.