I told you the other day that the DOJ probe was “ongoing.” And now we have an indictment. Yes, it’s Tennessee Democrat lawmaker Mike Kernell’s son, David Kernell. No more wild and carefree campus parties for you, son.

A University of Tennessee student who is the son of a Memphis legislator has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of hacking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail.

David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Palin, the governor of Alaska and Sen. John McCain’s running mate, according to U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick.

Dedrick said Kernell, the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, turned himself in to federal authorities today for arrest.

He is to be arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley.

The single-count indictment, returned Tuesday and unsealed today, alleges that on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, obtained unauthorized access to Palin’s personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password.

According to the indictment, after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell allegedly read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information.

According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mail and other personal information to a public Web site. Kernell also allegedly posted the new e-mail account password, thus providing access to the account by others.

Exactly as it was described in my post here.

Kernell faces five years in prison.

I hope he’ll serve every day of it.

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The Smoking Gun has the indictment. It discloses that “At least one other individual successfully used the reset password to access Governor Palin’s e-mail account.” I wonder if that person has been identified?

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An update on the Palin e-mail hacker case

On the Palin e-mail hacker trail

AP reporter e-mails: Yeah, it’s all Palin’s fault

Palin e-mail hack update: AP won’t help feds, tech operator will

The story behind the Palin e-mail hacking

Sarah Palin’s private e-mail hacked, family photos raided; cesspool blog gloats; feds investigate