FBI agents executed a search warrant Sunday at the apartment of University of Tennessee student David Kernell in connection with the hack of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's private Yahoo account.

According to a witness, two FBI agents arrived at Kernell's Knoxville apartment in The Commons student housing complex shortly after midnight on Sunday morning, interrupting a party.

Kernell and some of his friends reportedly fled when agents arrived, though the local TV station that reported the raid is a bit unclear about this detail. Other reports suggest he may have simply been upstairs with friends when the agents came. FBI agents asked partygoers who did not live in the apartment to wait outside while they photographed the residence.

Kernell's three roommates have been subpoenaed to appear in court in Chattanooga this week, though no charges have been filed against Kernell or anyone else in relation to the Palin incident. A grand jury is reportedly set to convene in Chattanooga on Tuesday.

Ashley Menner, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Tennessee and a neighbor of Kernell's at The Commons, told wired.com that 10 FBI agents first arrived to the complex in two SUV's on Friday afternoon around 4:30 or 5 pm and spoke with her and her roommates. Kernell wasn't at home at the time, and the agents asked to see Menner's apartment "to see how it was laid out," she said.

"It was very nonchalant. They didn't make a fuss," Menner said. "They didn't want to stir anything up. It's a very personal issue, being who his father is."

Menner said the agents looked at the computers in her apartment to see how they were set up. During that time, she said, Kernell came home and saw the agents.

"He walked right by them and walked into his apartment," she said. "He looked frazzled and shaken."

She didn't know if the agents spoke with Kernell but said they left after about an hour. At least one of the roommates received a subpoena on Friday, according to Menner.

Then on Saturday night, a small party was being hosted in Kernell's four-bedroom apartment, which Menner said he shares with two females and another male. Between 20 and 25 guests were in the apartment when the FBI returned. Menner saw only two agents posted outside Kernell's apartment and does not know if Kernell was there and fled or if he was ever in the apartment for the party.

Menner said she knew Kernell only in passing and had been acquainted with him only since the school term began August 23.

"He seems real pleasant, like a nice guy," she said. "But based on the blogs I've read on the incident, I don't think he's very smart at all. Especially having a father who is a state representative, doing something of that magnitude, it's not a very good decision. I don't know what he was thinking."

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney confirmed to wired.com that there was "investigatory activity" over the weekend in Knoxville regarding the government's inquiry into the hack of Palin's e-mail account. She said the department would only have further comment if and when it filed charges against any individual in relation to the case.

Kernell is the 20-year-old son of Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell who, when reached by wired.com last week at his home in Memphis, declined to discuss the matter.

Kernell senior told wired.com at the time that he was aware of widespread speculation of his son's involvement but that he had not spoken to him about it out of concern he might have to testify in a criminal proceeding. At the time of that conversation, Kernell said that authorities had not contacted him or his son, although a Tennessee newspaper erroneously reported that authorities had contacted his son.

A Nashville blogger who is friends with the elder Kernell wrote on Friday that Kernell drove to Knoxville to be with his son and that the two met with a lawyer Friday evening for dinner. She also reported on Sunday that father and son were staying at a hotel in Knoxville, following the appearance by law enforcement agents at David Kernell's apartment.

Palin's Yahoo account, gov.palin@yahoo.com, was infiltrated late Tuesday night by someone who used publicly available information about Palin (her birthdate, zip code and information about where she met her husband) to bypass Yahoo security measures and reset her password to "popcorn."

The intruder posted the new password and screenshots of her e-mail inbox to a forum at 4chan, leading other intruders to attempt to access her account as well.

On Thursday, a person claiming responsibility for the intrusion posted information to 4chan purporting to describe how he accessed Palin's account. The post was made under the handle "rubico," which bloggers quickly connected to an e-mail account, rubico10@yahoo.com, which they then connected to David Kernell.

Efforts to reach Kernell last week by phone were unsuccessful, although someone claiming to be Kernell did initially respond to an e-mail sent to the rubico10@yahoo.com address. The person did not respond to follow-up e-mails sent to that address. The IP address from which the communication originated resolved to Comcast and Knoxville, TN.

Portfolio.com (Wired's sister publication) reports that the IP address that was used to access Palin's Yahoo account belongs to Pavlov Media, an ISP based in Illinois. The ISP provides internet service to The Commons housing complex in Knoxville, TN, where Kernell lived. Personnel at The Commons told wired.com Monday morning that Pavlov Media provides internet service to the student housing complex, and Comcast provides its cable service.

Pavlov Media declined to discuss the matter.

A University of Tennessee spokeswoman confirmed that Kernell is a sophomore in the college of arts and sciences with an undeclared major, but would not say anything more about Kernell. Spokeswoman Amy Blakely added that the housing complex where Kernell reportedly lived is not affiliated with the university and provides housing to both students and non-students.

As reported here last week, Gabriel Ramuglia, owner of the internet proxy service Ctunnel.com, which Palin's intruder used to access her account and obscure his IP address, was examining his logs for the FBI to trace the intruder's IP address. Ramuglia told Portfolio that the FBI asked him about only one IP address, which he declined to disclose but said he had matched the address to web activity "consistent with what websites the hacker was expected to have visited through (the Ctunnel) service."

Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department computer crime prosector, told wired.com last week that he believed Palin's hacker, when caught, would likely be charged with a misdemeanor under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and face little to no time in prison, rather than be charged with a felony. More serious charges are possible, of course.

(This story has been updated with information from the University of Tennessee, The Commons housing complex, the Justice Department and Ashley Menner.)

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