A Tennessee man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for hacking into a personal e-mail account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Republican White House running mate of John McCain.
David Kernell, 20, "turned himself into federal authorities for arrest and will be arraigned on Wednesday before US Magistrate Judge C Clifford Shirley," the Justice Department said in a statement.
Kernell was charged in a single-count indictment with "on approximately Sept. 16, 2008 ... (securing) unauthorized access to Gov. Palin's personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password."
"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-mails and other personal information to a public Web site," the Justice Department added.
If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, a 250,000 dollar fine and a three-year term of supervised release.
Authorities did not immediately set a trial date.
{{/usCountry}}Authorities did not immediately set a trial date.
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