Kernell turned himself into authorities for arrest and will be arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley.
The single-count indictment, returned Tuesday and unsealed today, alleges that on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, obtained unauthorized access to Palin's personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password.
According to the indictment, after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, 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-mail and other personal information to a public Web site. Kernell also allegedly posted the new e-mail account password, thus providing access to the account by others.
If convicted, Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release. A trial date has not been set.
As many might remember, Kernell posted Palin's private photos of her family online as well as her private emails to friends and her entire email contact list, including her daughters and husbands.
Other bloggers such as Huffington Post and Americablog, also republished that information knowing it came from illegal means.
Kernell's intent was to try to find something incriminating against Palin, to which he later admitted he did not find.
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