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Court Rules That Palin Must Save Yahoo Emails

Posted by timothy on from the hope-yahoo's-ok-with-that dept.

quarterbuck writes "An Anchorage judge has ruled that Governor Sarah Palin must save her emails, as they were apparently used for state business. Last week a Tennessee man was arrested over hacking one of her Yahoo email accounts. The Washington Post also reports that Sarah Palin, her husband, and officials had set up email accounts known only to each other."

15 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Taking one for the team. by Drakin020 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I guess you can say that 4chan kid took one for the team.

    Had he not gained access (I don't use the word hack because he didn't hack anything) to her email account, this decision may not have come to be.

    I guess you can say he took one for the team although that may not have been his original intentions.

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    1. Re:Taking one for the team. by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Personal email accounts called gov.palin@yahoo.com and where the subjects clearly implied she was talking business?

      Sorry, I don't believe for a second they were personal.

    2. Re:Taking one for the team. by stinerman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Certainly he is a reluctant hero.

    3. Re:Taking one for the team. by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      gov.palin@yahoo.com was her personal use account. gov.sarah@yahoo.com was the one that she was using for official state business.

      It doesn't really matter what she says the account was used for, it is the actual usage that counts.
      The list of subjects and correspondents from the so-called 'personal use account' that are posted on wikileaks is extremely incriminating.

      I'm sure that the worst punishment she will receive will be a slap on the wrist, after all the president and his staff have already done far worse wrt to email hiding and nothing happened to them. But what it does do is expose 'politics as usual' for her, all claims to maverick status are pretty much null and void now.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    4. Re:Taking one for the team. by Maxmin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The account that got hacked was actually her personal Yahoo account, not one of the ones normally used for official business.

      Some interesting news on this front: because Palin deleted her Yahoo email accounts, she may be up for destruction of evidence charges. Felony if true, up to four years in prison.

      Shortly after the email account hack, Time revealed that the feds already had access to her Yahoo email accounts, as part of a federal investigation into Troopergate.

      One shoe left to drop, and it's the big one. Hopefully we'll hear something about it during October, though it's quite plausible that the current DOJ may drag their feet well past election day.

      --
      O lord, bless this thy holy hand grenade, that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.
    5. Re:Taking one for the team. by rtb61 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      In this context where there clearly was a premeditated and planned intent to avoid the legal requirements of maintaining records of government correspondence. Their intent was to arrange a method of communications, that they could hide from the public, clearly their intent was criminal, as such the full weight of the law should be measured out, other wise they make a mockery of their own laws.

      Underlying that is the enormous ego of creating your own personal governor for life email address on public web mail servers, really childish. In fact the whole episodes smacks of juvenile plots to deceive and hide the mischief that they clearly did intend. So in this case, it is actually worse than just deleting records, which as it turns out they have been deleted but, also it shows intent to create a illegal method of conducting government correspondence. Whilst the method was a rather simple and amateurish, it speaks largely of their incompetence and, does alter the nature of their criminal intent.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. Taking bets by Drakin020 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What do you want to bet she went ahead and cleared out any potentially incriminating emails?

    I wonder if Yahoo would be able to retrieve it or if they would even have to.

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
  3. Re:Like hell she will... by Azarael · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Until Yahoo gets subpoenaed to pull the email off of the back ups that they haven't deleted yet. Anyway, you could make a strong argument that given the circumstances, deleting the email would be considered destruction of evidence, which a US court _could_ hit you for.

  4. Re:Sooper secret email address !!! omgroflcopter!! by Derling+Whirvish · · Score: 4, Interesting

    why is a government employee sending emails on govt business through a free email account?

    Because it's illegal to send campaign messages, partisan political messages, or e-mails dealing with RNC activities through a government account.

  5. Re:More reasons Palin isn't ready for VP... by phanboy_iv · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unfortunately, I suspect that the vast majority of Americans on the internet are indeed this naive, Palin is just a highly visible example. Sad, but true.

  6. Re:Does that inbred hick even know how? by Jorophose · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Um, yeah, about that. Do you mind coming now and voting against our idiots in charge? Or at least helping us mince them to minority? (I like the way that turns out; government oversteps, smacked into elections) ... because if Harper wins a majority I'm moving to the US...

  7. Good for Goose and Gander by moteyalpha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    GGG://hoist.by.ones.own.petard.gov
    There was an article here on a bad search warrant that led to a criminal. So it seems, that no matter how badly the process is flawed, the ends justify the means and I think it is appropriate that if every single thing I do is scrutinized in or out of context, then the same should be true for the politicians who are more likely to do a great deal of damage, simply because they control many more resources, that are supposedly owned by everybody.

  8. Re:Wait, she had private email... by gmack · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Except if I do this as a business owner I pay the price in lost profits or efficiency. If I do this as a government official then the cost gets passed on to the taxpayers.

    This sort of thing needs to be punished wherever it's found and "everyone does it" is just not an excuse.

  9. Re:Count me off your team by fm6 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Your argument is circular: because the invasion of Palin's privacy revealed wrongdoing, there's no invasion of privacy. But the hacker had no way of knowing what he would find. He just broke in on a fishing expedition. That is what makes it an invasion of privacy.

    Using your own logic, I have every right to hack into your private files if I think I might find evidence of wrongdoing. Doesn't that wrongdoing negate your right to privacy?

  10. Re:Wait, she had private email... by GaryPatterson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That would be an excellent start. Get it *all* out - Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr, Al Gore, Cheney, Rumsfeld... expose *all* the lies and secrets. Prosecute the guilty and ensure that their crimes are recorded accurately into history.

    If that actually happened, US politics would be infinitely better for it. Even better if transparency was rigorously enforced from now on, through exposing issues like this email thing.