A federal magistrate judge has told defense attorneys they can't question FBI agents who scoured the laptop of a University of Tennessee student charged with improperly accessing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel said U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley ruled Thursday that he must first decide if the search itself was legal before deciding whether to examine what agents did once they seized David Kernell's computer.
Hmm interesting so does that mean there is a possibility that this whole thing will get thrown out?
Kernell, the son of a Democratic Tennessee legislator, is accused of gaining access to Palin's account in September by correctly answering a series of personal security questions. He has pleaded not guilty.
Kernell's attorneys have sought to exclude evidence seized from the computer from Kernell's trial. Palin was the Republican vice presidential candidate at the time.
Personally I am very interested in seeing the content of those e-mails submitted as evidence and having Sarah Palin subpoenaed to explain why she used a Yahoo account to conduct state business.
I mean if hacking into the Yahoo account is considered a federal crime because it may reveal sensitive information then why did the Governor not use the more secure state e-mail account to communicate with her staff and others? Like every OTHER lawmaker in Alaska does!
I am going to keep an eye on this case as it may reveal some very interesting information indeed.
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Gryphen, did you see this on AKM:
ReplyDelete" ...I heard from reliable source that she ($arah) has been closeted with several attorneys drafting particulars of a series of libel suits to be filed beginning next Monday."
That sounds about right. Trust vindictive, mean-girl Sarah to try to make her "enemies" (any one who does not agree with her and speaks out about it) pay. Hmmmmmm..... wonder if she's working on one for Conan O'Brien and William Shatner. Wish I could have been a fly on the wall when she heard about their "beat poetry" segment. lol
ReplyDeleteI don't see how this lawsuit has merit. Why? Because the hacker used passwords that he thought Palin would use and he was right. He got in. Seems to me Palin is the idiot here.
ReplyDeleteOops. I should have read the whole post! Gryphen has already said what I said in my comment. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteFEDUP!!!, well, she'll have to prove damages in a court of law if she's going to sue an American over libel. She'll have to prove some of the charges as false. It's not easy to do. I wish her luck! Bah hahahahahaha!
Gryphen
ReplyDeleteThis report was posted on the Knoxville Sentinel
website over 2 weeks ago on July 16.
KIM: Yes, I know it is not easy to do, but I seem to remember something vaguely about simply 'spamming' with those lawsuits (my terminology - don't remember what the correct term is), by making the defendants not be able to respond because it is too expensive to defend.
ReplyDeleteI think that topic came up a couple of months ago on one of these blogs - maybe even Gryphens.
scary doesnt want this case to proceed imho. Discovery will be a karmic cluster fuck for her.
ReplyDelete(can I say that?)
Case will be dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor, imho.
I read about the FBI agents not being questioned weeks ago. I'm waiting to hear what emails can be released. The best for the client would be to have it all dropped. Since day one I heard the prosecutors didn't have a case that would stand up. IDK, enough about the law. The email release would work for me.
ReplyDeleteIDK what reliable source is saying they are working on a libel case. If Van Flien is one of the attorneys, it could be a tactic intimidate. Where is the burden of proof with libel? Intent? Libel would be against large media giants? Who has been the most out spoken? National Enquirer?
Is the ATF paying for these closet lawyers? What can they do? Shut up a large part of the media while she starts her next tour? We have aggressive litigators here. They never plan on winning, they just want to shut people up or send them to the poor house. It can go on for a long time and no one ever ends up being deposed. It is how the rich dick people.
They probably want to send a message to Levi's publisher. If Palin's lawyers look too lame, I don't think they will back down. She could help increase Levi's sales.
Would she be suing Alaskan or national media?
If she tries suing Shannon or Andrea, I suspect they will be covered up with offers for some pro-bono assistance. I hope so! Pat in Texas
ReplyDeleteshe's huddled up with her lawyers to discuss;
ReplyDeleteusing ATF for plastic surgery and attacks against citizens
how to get TN to redact (or, anti-progress) the lawsuit against the guy who read her Yahoo emails
suing her hairdresser for her thinning hair
suing entire internet for speaking about her
these are just ..... rumors....based on c4p "facts" LOL.
Hi FEDUP!!!,
ReplyDeleteWell, here in America we get to have a public defender if we aren't able to afford an attorney! Woohoo! LOL Sarah will have to pay her lawyers to handle all her lawsuits against the bloggers. It will cost her more in the end I think. Proving libel is tough. She will have to prove how her life was damaged (financially/emotionally etc) by what was said of her (whether true or not).
Sarah is so stupid that she probably was using Yahoo to circumvent the AK Gov communication network. She also is just dumb enough to think that things that she communicated (using the term broadly here) thru Yahoo would be hers and her "communicees" alone and therefore would never be able to be part of a Freedom of Info Act request.
ReplyDeleteI see her thinking that she was getting something over on anyone that wanted to "watchdog" her activities.
Yet, one has to assume that there were saner minds guiding her and would have thought this was a bad idea, period. But, as we have heard, Sarah does what Sarah wants to do and takes no advice from anyone.
I think she probably was very frank and honest and basically spilled guts about a lot of things on her yahoo mail thinking that because it wasn't State of AK run that she could pretty much do anything. She forgot that she is protected by the State when she uses the official channels of communication.
Not so much when she went rogue and used non-state resources to communicate.
Just my feeling on this and who knows what stupid things she said thinking that she had the "cloak of internet anonymity" surrounding her.
My god, just look at her tweets on the official Gov twitter. What might she say if she's not being scrutinized?
Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in the Sixth Circuit Blog.
Search and Seizure and Sarah Palin ( links )
http://blowpoppalin.blogspot.com/2009/07/search-and-seizure-and-sarah-palin.html
This is new territory and it could end up with SCOTUS many years from now.
When the Tennessee email hacker case began it involved (potentially) the next Vice-President of the United States. Now it's just about crazy bitter quitter Sarah. The greatly diminished political and social stature of the hackee may be a huge benefit to the alleged hacker. If Palin was VP now, the Tennessee boy would be in Gitmo already.
ReplyDeletePosted long comments on AKM about the lawsuits. Just finished a 2+ yr divorce proceedinigs with my daughter. Ex SIL is very much like SP.
ReplyDeleteHe did not have any ground to stand on, but he sure was proficient in stiring up the dust. Everything in court must be answered to.
But judges rule their court rooms, thank heaven, as he found out.
10cats
Wow, I hope I get one. A libel suit against me would give me the opportunity to tell the court and the world what I think about the former governor. Lock me up, take everything away, it would be worth my freedom of speech. Why as an American, I have already felt threatened by some of her speeches. Uh oh, don't think she'll send me an aerial bullet, do ya? Oops....my bad. Anyway, I hope I get one.
ReplyDeleteJHop commented at one point on libel suits, I think when Van Flein was threatening Shannyn. If I remember correctly she said it would be difficult for her to prove any sort of libel, as a political public figure and that if she were to lose, she'd have to pay all court costs, lawyers fees for the defendant. I think those comments are on AKM's blog. Not to mention the can of worms opened up by her and others within her circle having their depositions taken.
ReplyDeleteCORRECTION ! ! !
ReplyDeleteThe kid did NOT hack into the account and a while back his attorney requested to court to order that the term "hack" not be used in proceedings.
Apparently, the kid guessed Palin's password, went into the account, changed her pass word and also made it available to others.
THIS IS A VERY BIG POINT IN THE CASE AND IS WHY MANY ATTORNEYS ARE ATTENDING THE TRIAL.
Guessing the password was possible because the kid used information that was already available to the public in order to guess the word.
Also, there are legal issues, that if won by the prosecution, would cause trouble in the future in similar cases. I.E. if they win this legal point ( and likely the case ) then it will make it more difficult to prosecute inthe future ( win this battle, but lose the war.)
The issues are too complicated to go into in a post, but are available on the web in articles about this case.