Palin Email Hacker’s Lawyer Seeks Dismissal Because Emails are Public Record.
Wade Davies, attorney for David Kernell, the notorious Palin email hacker who retrieved and published emails from Governor Sarah Palin’s off-the-radar email account, (cleverly disguised as gov.palin@yahoo.com), has asked for a dismissal of charges. On what grounds? Because “an Alaska court has issued an order requiring Ms. Palin to preserve the correspondence in her private e-mail accounts on the grounds that the e-mails are public records.”
The court ruled on this after local political watchdog Andree McLeod pointed out that the governor was illegitimately using this personal email account to conduct official state business, speculating that this unorthodox use of private emails may have been specifically used to skirt public records law. Because that email contained official state business that was “off the grid” of the regular state email system, she argued, those emails should be subject to the Alaska Public Records Statute, and were public documents. A judge agreed and said that Palin was required to preserve this correspondence which was a matter of public record.
“He’s not suggesting that e-mail can’t be private,” says Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department cybercrime prosecutor. “He’s saying this particular e-mail was not private or personal because of who she is and because it wasn’t intimate communication. ”
Despite the fact that the governor has two Blackberries, one for personal use, and one for state business, the lines between the two were often…err…fuzzy. (See photo above) And when I say “fuzzy,” that’s a euphemism for “non-existent.” Palin had at least two personal Yahoo accounts, one of which was used for state business. The personal accounts of at least two other high-level Palin staffers were used to conduct state business as well, but how widespread the practice was we may never know.
“He’s also saying that what was in the e-mails would ultimately have been revealed [under litigation] therefore she had no expectation of privacy in it,” says Rasch.
Rasch says that although the alleged public-records status of the e-mail doesn’t give anyone the right to break into the account, “it would be very difficult for [the government] to allege a breach of privacy” if the e-mail is a public record.
He also says that in order to prove a privacy interest in the e-mails, the government would have to share the contents of the e-mails. “I don’t see how they could prosecute the case without doing it,” he says. “Those are the exhibits. They can ask the court to submit them under seal, but how do I as a juror decide if there was an invasion of privacy if I don’t know what he looked at?”
Palin’s office did not return a call seeking comment.
Mark your calendars. Kernell’s trial is scheduled to begin on October 27.
[h/t to Mudflatter V4V in Wasilla for the great photo taken at the Wasilla Sports Complex]
Yay! At last a judge with a brain. Smackdown time for Sarah!
Hm, maybe she’s taking fashion tips from Track, then?
65 InJuneau Says:
May 21st, 2009 at 11:01 AM
Oh now, those are prob. those handpainted clogs she’d so fond of (painted by some friend of one of her sisters…)…
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Look like spit shined army boots to me.
Oh now, those are prob. those handpainted clogs she’d so fond of (painted by some friend of one of her sisters…)…
For someone who has an obvious shoe fetish , those sure are some ugly ass shoes sarah is wearing.
anadventurer said: “And please stop putting your street address in SSID for your wireless router”
I have the ssid broadcast feature disabled as a further measure of security.
If you don’t know. All those security questions you were asked when you sign up ARE pretty easy to figure out by anyone who was time/desire. Make up a set of FALSE answers to those questions and stick to them, you will be much more “secure”.
And please stop putting your street address in SSID for your wireless router AND enable WEP for crying out loud. (Yes, I moonlight as a security & technology consultant, often for free (as in beer).
57 Wurzelhexli Says:
May 21st, 2009 at 8:27 AM
If you zoom in to the pic, you can see that her arm is not covering his face – he is looking at the pics on the Blackberry…
It looks like he is trying to look at it, but she has it angled away from him not toward him and her arms is around his Neck
When my daughter was that Age I would not even consider holding her with my arm around her neck but around her chest
I heard they had employed a Wassila girl for the nanny job for Trig. Why not hire someone with training in special needs children? They can afford it. Of course I am assuming here, but when you hear “wasilla girl” you don’t think, professional.
Good luck to him. That ruling may work in his favor.
the password wasn’t guessed and was never said what it was. Here is what happened. Still it was to easy though to get into her account!
“Bloggers had fingered Kernell as a suspect after linking him to the online name “rubico,” used by the hacker who claimed to have accessed Palin’s Yahoo account. Rubico claimed to have accessed the account by using Yahoo’s password reset feature and answering security questions with publicly available information, and the indictment supports that claim. He guessed correctly that Palin had met her husband at Wasilla High.”
If you zoom in to the pic, you can see that her arm is not covering his face – he is looking at the pics on the Blackberry…
That said: Does anyone know if this child is getting ANY of the much-needed early intervention to make sure he will be able to walk/talk/function as a contributing member of society (albeit a low-functioning one probably)?
Or is she just toting him around, making sure he does NOT get the intervention he needs, so he can be hidden away in a mental ward somewhere, so he will never be able to understand/talk about what his family did/did not do to him?
52 LibertyLover Says
“Second of all — does Palin have her arm across the baby’s face while she is texting? Nice.”
That reminds me of the youtube clip……….wish I saved it of Sarah carrying Trigg when she was walking and he was all bundled up because it was cold, but he had no SHOES on.
HEY Maybe she does not want it disclosed because she may have been having an Affair and the emails were to her lover….. Would be too funny if that was the true lol
another btw…….adoring mother is at Willow’s basketball game, shows a lot of respect don’t you think? not…….Piper is more into it than mommy dearest.
CorningNY Says: “Then again, if she publicized the fact that Trig needs so many special services, that would be admitting he is less than perfect–and we already know she had, and likely is still having, a hard time dealing with that fact. Maybe secretly part of her wishes she did have an abortion…”
Palin has no clue what may come down the road with this child, she won’t know until later, every DS child is different, correct? there can be all sorts of complications and problems at varying degrees. It really bothered me that this little guy was exposed to so much loud noise on the campaign trail, babies hearing is sensitive, did they even have ear plugs on him?
Just like Bristol is learning the hard way by having a baby while a teen and unmarried and now trying to get a grip on how to handle the change. Palin is going to go through the same thing with Trig as he grows up. I suppose many family with DS or Autisc children don’t have behavior problems with their children, but many do.
We have a friend whose child (not DS) has just been kicked out of school because at the age of 14 he’s become combative and he hit a teacher. He’s also begun hitting his mother. This couple purposely chose not to have their own children but instead adopt child to give an unwanted one a loving home, they adopted him as an infant knowing he was in danger of being mentally damaged. He has been VERY well loved and his disability needs were taken seriously, the parents poured their lives into rescuing this child. Sadly the husband succumbed to cancer one year ago after a valiant fight to beat it, he was a warrior and did not want to abandon this child and wife. An awesome wonderful talented progressive person.
So now we have this and what is to come from it? This is the hard part, is it more merciful to abort early or bring a child into the world and go through this and perhaps needing the child to be institutionalized or drugged to no end. My heart just breaks for her, they love him so much this is tearing her apart. Now he’s not DS, his mother was a crack head, he was born addicted and definitely has some sort of neurological brain damage. They are taking him to specialists for yet more testing, very expensive testing, they no longer have her husbands medical insurrance.
I apologize if I’m off base about this, I’m sure she’d say all the years of hard effort and successes in some areas and functioning as a loving family up until now was worth it, but I have to wonder about the cost, to her, the child, our society. I just dont’ know. I’m sorry if my thoughts upset anyone, I’m not intending hate towards disabled I just hurt for my friend and her breaking heart.
So back to my point about Scarah, she can be flippant about this situation right now but there is no way of telling what will come in time. And she had better start investing time into that child, it’s more important than her frickin political ambitions. and btw, just what sort of psychological patterns do you think this child will have being raised by a narcissist? big sigh
I’ve always thought the choice comes before sex, creating life is serious business, prevent an unwanted pregnancy, period, that’s the only thing fair to both woman and soul. Abstinence is not natural. Trying to stick religion into controlling sex is crazy, abortion is unfortunate. anyway………Palin’s journey with Trigg has just begun, I sincerely hope for his sake it is easy and he has a good life.
Gosh, now I need to go cheer myself up.
this can backfire on SP if ANY of the e-mails are State biz…
Hey AKM!!
First of all, good post. And It brings to mind the movie “Tequila Sunrise” with Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfieffer, Kurt Russell and the late Raul Julia. There was a bit in there about the use of two different walkie talkies, and the possibility of using the wrong one. Seems to me the “bad guy” got caught in that scenario as well.
Second of all — does Palin have her arm across the baby’s face while she is texting? Nice.
SmallSteps Says:
May 21st, 2009 at 4:55 AM
Ripley – that was her password???? Puhleeze!
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Believe it or not!….sorry , I couldn’t resist……;)
As Palin ponders her political future, I wonder if she even considers the needs of her son. Right now, she can tote him around like a bag of potatoes, but as he grows, he really will need a lot of time and attention.
My sister has a special needs child and it is a huge time commitment. But, the difference may be that my sister actually wants to spend time with her child and help him grow to be the best person possible. I think Sarah will choose to tour the lower 48 and pass off her child to someone else.
It’s sad that she seems to have little interest in her children after they are born—-unless they are serving her political needs. Her interaction with her kids is very cold—even with little Piper.
No wonder those Palin kids are so screwed up. From birth, they have been passed around like a sack of potatoes. Palin sure likes to pop kids out, but after that, her interest seems minimal, at best. They make great political props her for, but I’ve yet to see any affection from Palin toward her children.
Contrast that with President Obama and Michelle’s interaction with their children. The love they feel for them is written all over their faces.
One huge reason not to give kids blackberrys! They’ll warp your brain.
Basically she has an expectation of privacy in her communciations whether over email much as she would over a telephone. We all do as US citizens. That’s why you need a court order before the gov (police) can “eavesdrop” into someone’s phone, computer, text messages, pagers, facebook, etc… The argument is intertesing vis a vis public v. private emails and the standing request for teh giv related emails wil have to be dealet with likely with a release of public emails which will be redacted prior to release. Get ready.
The hacker will be convicted by trial or plea.
AS for the photo, it is an aerial over head and the position of her arm appears the be not over Trig’s face but just under his chin. To be fair, a frontal (??) shot would have not led to such assumptions about how she is holding the baby. But yes as for the blackberries, that is just not right, That stuff can wait!
Let’s hope we see Trig grabbing the blackberries out of her hands soon!
Trig is not hers. She feels no maternal instinct. Google Governors National Association Conference Feb 23-25 2008. In the photo galley scroll to the bottom to get the picture of all the sitting govs. Click on high resolution under the pix. Scroll to the left. There is Palin (front row of course) click mouse on her to bring up a higher resolution. This is two months before Trig was born. Clearly she is not pregnant, despite what she says. She and her family are living lies.
40 Ripley in CT Says: May 21st, 2009 at 3:50 AM
The kid never “hacked”. He guessed her password “ilovetodd”.
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That is exactly within the definition of hacking.
Same as the stranger trying to get into your house correctly guesses where you left the house key can be charged with burglary for using that key to open the door and walking in. Fact is, he had no business getting into her email account.
To use a slightly different example, we may suspect the neighbor (a butthead who we really don’t like) has drugs in his house. Should we be allowed to find his hidden house key to walk in and remove the drugs? Is that a line we want to cross? If we justify that type of action against a person we neither respect nor like, what do we do when it happens to someone we like or… what if it happens to us?
Perhaps GINO is cold in dealing with Trig, because he is not her biological child? Seemed like a good idea at the time, made her Saint Sarah the Life-Giver and all, but now, he is just another kid to ignore.
Ripley – that was her password???? Puhleeze!
For all of those complaining about how she is holding baby Trig, I am not about to defend Scarah, but I will tell you that holding a child with Down Syndrome is not like holding any other typical child. All children with DS have low tone. Some children with other disabilities also have low tone. Tone varies from child to child. My daughter’s muscles are definitely stronger now then when she was Trig’s age, but the general “tone” will always be on the low side.
What does this mean? When you’re holding a baby or child, it translates into how well do they hold on to you. Trig is probably about 20 lbs now. So, imagine taking 20lbs of cooked spaghetti noodles (the long thin kind) and putting them in a ziploc bag. Then carry that bag of cooked spaghetti as if it were your child. So, it can look a little awkward to the casual observer – but not like how Scarah hold Trig. And there’s no excuse for the lack of compassion I see in the way she carries her son. Nor for the dual blackberries.
1. I don’t think GINO has any power over whether these charges go ahead, because they are under a criminal law statute in another jurisdiction (federal). The “victim” doesn’t get to decide whether prosecution happens or not.
2. While creative, I’m not sure that the effort to dismiss the charges can work, because, at least of the e-mails that were released, at least some were in the nature of “private” stuff — family pictures, etc. If even one of those e-mails was purely private, it would be a potential invasion of GINO’s privacy, and arguably of the person who sent it to her.
“Last October, federal prosecutors in Tennessee had Kernell indicted on one felony count of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Then in March prosecutors filed three more charges — one count of identity theft for allegedly impersonating Palin to access her e-mail account; one count of wire fraud for allegedly scheming to defraud Palin of property by obtaining information from her account and posting it to a web forum; and one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly destroying evidence.” http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/palin-hack
3. Nothing in the arguments, as outlined in the article, would make the identity theft or obstruction of justice charges invalid, as far as I can see. However, those might have separate, valid defences.
Having been a very active professional woman with a child, I know you sometimes take the child with you to activities because you want to be with your child but still need to attend events. Nonetheless, if Palin skipped these events to be with her children, I am sure Alaskans would criticize her to no end. If her private emails are not written any better than some of her interview comments, we are going to be faced with diagramless run-on sentences that do not make much sense.
The kid never “hacked”. He guessed her password “ilovetodd”.
this whole affair is going to be very helpful. My guess is that she drops charges because they will ask for proof of content… and she’s not trying to show anyone any e-mails EVER. I hope Andree keeps on this one. Perhaps Alaska will finally get the e-mails she’s been hiding.
OMIGod you guys are on fire this morning!!! LMAO @ your comments.
Loved this caption at the bottom of AKM’s article:
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[h/t to Mudflatter V4V in Wasilla for the great photo taken at the Wasilla Sports Complex]
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Are you sure it wasn’t taken in her living room ?
The sports complex and her house are identical, aren’t they ?
How can you tell them apart !
36 UK Lady Says:
May 21st, 2009 at 12:35 AM
The legal argument may not stand, but this case will bring a lot of public attention to the fact that Scarah is being secretive and underhand, an opinion most people already have, this will reinforce it and bring unwelcome attention.
Did’t I read that Yahoo were ordered to keep copies of all the correspondence for these accounts?.
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Yup – I totally agree with point 1. And I think you are right about Yahoo being ordered to keep the copies. There are always copies SOMEWHERE. As long as this case is not settled , the e-mails better not be destroyed. We’re talking Exhibit A here , right ??
The legal argument may not stand, but this case will bring a lot of public attention to the fact that Scarah is being secretive and underhand, an opinion most people already have, this will reinforce it and bring unwelcome attention.
Did’t I read that Yahoo were ordered to keep copies of all the correspondence for these accounts?.
cosanostradamus
Oh, and don’t worry. That’s not a baby, that’s a sack of flour. Nobody would hold a baby like that. …Right?
Well, you’d think not, but that would be the fatal flaw in trying to figure out what’s going on in that head…
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Kinda sounds like what Bushco did, rerouting email traffic through the RNC’s servers to try to keep it off the public record. Then the RNC recently “lost” most of those emails, somehow.
I hope the government or Palin herself had to pay the hacker’s legal fees. If not, we should get up a collection. Could have been ruinous for him.
Oh, and don’t worry. That’s not a baby, that’s a sack of flour. Nobody would hold a baby like that. …Right?
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It depends on the companies’ archival policy – when Renkes was AG – when he knew he was in hot water and went directly to the IT staff and had them delete his e-mail. Then tried to stick it to IT when asked about past e-mails.
http://www.adn.com/news/government/renkes/
Not sure what the State’s archival policy is now, probably much stricter since SOX. I know SOX is federal, but policies have a tendency to creep. There are plenty of companies that do not archive e-mail permanently unless the user
chooses to archive it themselves – saves a lot storage space and headaches – both ways.
ds55–I believe that is Piper, who was, remarkably, spotted IN JUNEAU today.
Where was that photo taken? Is that a recent one?
I only wish he had hacked and printed the 1100 Andree McLeod is still waiting for…..
Seriously, I hope the legal argument holds up. If he hadn’t hacked in, would people really have known she was trying to hide official email and wonder what needed to be hidden?
There really is no expectation of privacy for anyone in public office and the statute is clear – anything related to an official’s position is fair game, whether it is in the official mail box or in your private e-mail.
One day I was watching Opra and her topic was how things work. Her guest went on and showed how the phone and computers work. If I recall correctly, he said that all emails were never ever really deleted. He said that there is a central data bank that never gets deleted except for every number of years or something like that. He said anything that has ever been deleted can be recalled. He also said to be very careful what you say in your emails because they never really get deleted. I hope this is the case. Was a very interesting show. Hope GINO reads this and starts sweating.
wow, mlaiuppa, great minds think alike!
A baby and two blackberries…hmmm. I’ll never forget the first (and last) time I took my baby for a walk while using my cell phone. It was just all wrong. The point of being with your child is to be WITH your child! Having an electronic umbilical cord defeats the purpose. And why on earth would anyone be carrying around 2 blackberries at a social event? Like she’s going to be reading and responding to emails on the spot? Gimme a break.
Maybe one explaination (at least in GINO’s poor warped brain) for the way she carries Trig facing out is that it’s a ready made photo op.
I can imagine that thought coming into her head and those poor brain cells that may have tried to tell her that Trig needed connection with her face to face never stood a chance.
My understanding is that there were hundreds and some were definitely government e-mails. Those that the hacker copied and that were “released” were just a few and “innocent” ones. But there were more. And I wonder how incriminating they might be.
Now if it was me doing the hacking, I would have downloaded, archived and printed out every one and kept a file. Just in case at some future time if she were supoenaed to produce them and they “disappeared” there would still be a record of them.
BTW I’m not sure if the reason Trig never faces Palin is because she doesn’t want to look at him or to make sure the camera picks up his face for her photo ops. He is a prop, after all. Wonder how old and how big Trig will have to get before Mommy doesn’t carry him around and let him loll on her knee? Maybe…until she’s out of office in 2010? Then we don’t see him anymore unless she’s running for President?
This photo haunts me…..as previous posters have said…she never has that baby facing her. I have never seen an ounce of tenderness toward him. Hauls him like a bag of rocks. Does she care about anyting other than her precious Blackberries..? Sickening.
Dame….hmmm….I hadn’t thought about that. A little vodka would be colorless and odorless. Would anyone dare discuss anything of substance with her when she is so shielded?
thanks for the pic curiouser, again the kid is stone cold passed out. What is in that bottle.
Wow! Having trouble getting past the pic! Great work V4V! Hopefully, we’ll hear more about the emails soon and won’t have to wait for the Oct trial.
Here’s another pic….passed out baby, bottle and 2 blackberries….from the AK website. Looks like Piper’s lost her job as deflector/protector.
http://www.gov.state.ak.us/large_photo.php?id=267
KaJo Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 7:52 PM
Good lord, October 27th? Who knows WHERE the Yahoo e-mails will be by then? I’m thinking the scrubbing will be pretty complete by October…
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You may be right, but I’m told they can find things even when they have been deleted. Unless she smashes her hard drive….. anything deleted could be found.
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Regarding the picture above:
That picture breaks my heart when I see how she is “holding” Trigg and no one is paying an ounce of attention. I feel so sorry for that baby!
IF the charge against David Kernel are written in a way that states he ‘hacked into her private e-mail account’ the objection will stand up and the prosecutor may or may not choose to amend the complaint. If the account has been ruled ‘public’ and he is being charged for hacking into her private…well the law sees no gray.
I think the lawyer would have to prove Palin was doing official business on her private email for said emails to be considered public…I’ve confused myself on this one. Perhaps that is the lawyer’s purpose? Clever lawyer–
Great picture – yeah, that pretty much says it all for the Palin. Squish the kid, get to the Blackberry quick so you can take that cell call from God since she can’t get him to join twitter.
This has a very “double double toil and trouble” feel about it – maybe Sarah could take note from Macbeth here.
Good lord, October 27th? Who knows WHERE the Yahoo e-mails will be by then? I’m thinking the scrubbing will be pretty complete by October…
mlaiuppa Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 7:47 PM
Tee hee.
What a picture of loving Motherhood. Wonder if Palin would put the baby on the floor if it interfered too much with her Blackberry?
Oh, this is going to get good. I’m thinking short hairs.
What does Palin want more? To get the Hacker (and reveal the e-mails) or to protect the e-mails (and let the hacker off)?
What do to, what to do.
Tee hee.
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The emails are nothing much…they were leaked to “wiki leaks” some photos, Willow holding Trig making a face, and her email list, a email complaining about Fagan, some seemingly meaningless emails, nothing that I saw earth shaking. Unless there was more than was released? Go to Wiki leaks and search for palin, they might still be there.
Nan Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 7:44 PM
Crystalwolf aka caligrl 😀
Does anyone remember those classes where you had to carry around an egg for a week, finding an “egg-sitter” if you wanted to go to the movies – supposed to give an idea what having a baby would (might) be like (minus leakage and wailing).
That’s what seeing a picture of SP lugging Trigg around like a football makes me think of.
Oh my… I just thought of this… Does anyone remember seeing a picture of SP with Trigg when he is *not* facing away from her? Oh my.
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so true! she treats him like a sack of potatoes…I’ve seen Dud carry him cradling his face on his chest. GINO just cold. Cold, Cold.
Vile. disgusting.
Tee hee.
What a picture of loving Motherhood. Wonder if Palin would put the baby on the floor if it interfered too much with her Blackberry?
Oh, this is going to get good. I’m thinking short hairs.
What does Palin want more? To get the Hacker (and reveal the e-mails) or to protect the e-mails (and let the hacker off)?
What do to, what to do.
Tee hee.
Crystalwolf aka caligrl 😀
Does anyone remember those classes where you had to carry around an egg for a week, finding an “egg-sitter” if you wanted to go to the movies – supposed to give an idea what having a baby would (might) be like (minus leakage and wailing).
That’s what seeing a picture of SP lugging Trigg around like a football makes me think of.
Oh my… I just thought of this… Does anyone remember seeing a picture of SP with Trigg when he is *not* facing away from her? Oh my.
Couldn’t help thinking when I looked at that photo – “yes this is how you would run a state”. Great photo. I agree with you all – what a poor little babe.
Nan Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 7:28 PM
True, but “public records” are kinda considered to be … public.
If nothing else, the lawyer may have thrown up enough confusion to distract from the actual charges. Smart lawyer.
We might even need popcorn for this one.
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My exact thoughts…and this is not Alaska 🙂
Is that Piper sitting next to the GINO?
It’s in Sarah’s best interests if this just quietly goes away, who knows what insurgent investigators might turn up as the worm turns!
Good legal argument and I like his style. It may fall flat as sauerkraut suggests, but hey, it will make for some fiery legal debate. Oh to be there!
Sometimes I really do love the way lawyers think.
Does she EVER pay attention to those poor babies she’s supposed to be caring for-whether Trig or Tripp? And never once have I heard mention of Trig receiving early intervention services like speech, physical and occupational therapy. You’d think she would be talking about that all the time, as one more thing she has to juggle as SuperMom. Then again, if she publicized the fact that Trig needs so many special services, that would be admitting he is less than perfect–and we already know she had, and likely is still having, a hard time dealing with that fact. Maybe secretly part of her wishes she did have an abortion…
She’s awful on so many levels, but I have a basic disrespect for her as a parent.
True, but “public records” are kinda considered to be … public.
If nothing else, the lawyer may have thrown up enough confusion to distract from the actual charges. Smart lawyer.
We might even need popcorn for this one.
Holy &*&%. I agree w/sauerkraut that it’s probably not going to hold water, but still what an argument, and what a possible backdoor into getting those emails *really* public.
I dunno… it’s a clever argument and maybe the prosecution won’t take the proper approach, but it seems to me that the issue isn’t whether the email is/isn’t public, but whether he hacked into the instrument.
Fer instance, money is legal to possess, but if it’s locked up on the other side of the window, yer gonna get yer knickers pinched if you pop open that window and take the legal tender.
My guess is that the argument will fall flat because the charge isn’t “possession of public documents.”
WOW, she is so into that Blackberry that she doesn’t seem to mind she has her forearm over the baby’s face! Dedicated mother for sure. /sarc.