Did the college student indicted yesterday in federal court for hacking Sarah Palin’s e-mail ever stop to think that he might, well, get caught?
David Kernell, 20, last month allegedly broke into the veep candidate’s personal e-mail account, posting its contents on the Internet.
The breach was an invasion of privacy – and an act of monumental stupidity.
According to the indictment, Kernel uncovered Palin’s personal address book, family pictures and at least one family member’s cellphone number.
To what purpose, it isn’t clear.
What did he expect the feds to do – shrug their shoulders? Perhaps.
After all, what’s a public official’s private correspondence but one more mound of data to dump into the political fever swamp? Or so one might think.
Kernell now faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
He certainly doesn’t deserve to have one mistake ruin his life – but let’s be clear: Prosecutors need to take this case very seriously, if only to draw a line between acceptable political activity and illegal invasion of privacy.
And to make David Kernell, if guilty, an object lesson in the consequences attending the latter.