Defence lawyers in the Sarah Palin webmail account hack case intend to claim the Alaskan governor's emails were a matter of public record and therefore enjoyed no expectation of privacy. The novel legal tactic is designed to reduce the seriousness of the charges against their client, David Kernell. Citing an Alaskan court's decision that Palin's private webmail account, allegedly used for government business, ought to be preserved pending the resolution of a lawsuit, lawyers for hack trial defendant Kernell argue that hacking charges against the 20 year-old ought to be dropped or reduced to less serious misdemeanour offences.
