Mueller’s Russia Probe Nets Another Conviction

Small fish or big fish – special counsel Robert Mueller is reeling them in.

OH, with the past couple of weeks of Brett Kavanaugh hysteria, did we forget that there’s still an ongoing special counsel probe of Russia and their attempts to interfere in the 2016 election?

Don’t fall asleep, guys. This thing is still on all four wheels and it is rolling!

With that said, there has been another conviction handed down, and another player in the 2016 election drama is going to see the inside of a prison cell.

Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud seven months ago and cooperated with government investigators in the case against the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll farm accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

Judge Dabney Friedrich handed down his sentence in federal court in Washington, D.C. Pinedo will also have to complete 100 hours of community service and submit to computer monitoring.

Let me voice here what you’re all probably thinking:

Who is Richard Pinedo?

Good question. He’s apparently one of those aforementioned “little fish,” but his role was not so small that he managed to escape notice, and that’s the thing that should be causing some of those bigger fish moments of great unease.

Pinedo, who is from California, was sentenced earlier Wednesday to a six month prison stay, along with six months of home detention, and another two years of supervised release.

That’s rather stiff, considering names we’re more familiar with, like the low-level coffee boy, George Papadopoulos only got fourteen days for lying to FBI agents.

It was Papadopoulos’ drunken braggadocio to an Australian diplomat that was the genesis of the now voluminous Russia probe.

Pinedo, who has no connection to the Trump campaign, ran a firm called Auction Essistance that helped individuals circumvent security features of online payment companies, according to court filings. Over three years, he allegedly generated between $40,000 and $95,000 by acquiring and selling bank account information. He has admitted to using stolen identities to set up bank accounts that were later used by Russians in a broad plot to interfere in the 2016 election, though his attorneys maintain Pinedo did not know he was dealing with Russians.

Pinedo and his attorneys described his involvement in the investigation as having a debilitating impact on his life and his family, resulting in death threats and harassment.

I don’t know where the death threats could be coming from.

Seriously. This name is new to probably most people outside of California.

In remarks before the court on Wednesday, Pinedo said he had been accused of being a “Russian agent” and that his personal information and his family’s address had been posted online.

“Every knock on the door now comes with anxiety as to who it could be,” said Pinedo, who took “full responsibility” for his actions.

Guys, don’t dox people. It’s a crappy move, only done by crappy individuals.

As stiff as the sentencing for Pinedo’s crimes were, they were lenient, given the federal sentencing guidelines for his crimes.

Under those guidelines, he could have spent 12 to 18 months behind bars. He got off light.

Attorneys for Pinedo had hoped that, given his cooperation with the investigation, that they could have secured a sentence that included no prison time.

Government prosecutors described Pinedo’s cooperation as significant but not rising to the level of “substantial assistance.” Rush Atkinson, one of Mueller’s prosecutors, suggested Wednesday that Pinedo provided the government with information on other Americans involved in the identity fraud scheme but not enough to generate other criminal charges.

Atkinson also argued the government already knew much of the information Pinedo revealed about the Russian operation. Mueller’s team did not request a particular sentence, instead electing to defer to the court.

Pinedo is now conviction number three, joining Papadopoulos, and Alex van der Zwaan.

For those without a play bill to keep up, van der Zwaan is a Dutch lawyer who lied to government investigators about the lobbying activities of Richard Gates and Paul Manafort.

Both Manafort and Gates have pleaded guilty and have agreed to cooperate with the ongoing probe.

So yes, while the Kavanaugh circus was a change of pace for the media, it’s time to get back at it. There’s a midterm election coming up, and if you think Russia is sitting this one out, you haven’t been paying attention, at all.