Processing the convicted
Who’s next ?
Step right up
No waiting
Does anyone know the D.C. District Court judges who are on the Mueller cases? Seems to be a fair amount of disparity in the initial slew of sentences on this case. Papadopoulos,who was obstructive and dishonest, but squawked a lot to the press before sentencing, gets 14 days. Van Der Zwan got 1 month. This guy gets 6 months in custody and 6 on home confinement after what seemed like a Prosecutor motion suggesting a lenient sentence.
It’s nice that the judge was understanding, but wasn’t the cost to his family caused by Pinedo’s criminal behavior? Which was, as we lawyers say, willful and knowing.
it was only locker-room “treason”.
I wonder how frequently judges apologize for the hardships caused to families of poor, minority criminals. I’m not a lawyer, but this seemed a bit surreal to me.
I think it’s pretty rare.
I have no legal expertise , but suspect the sentencing was influenced by the identity theft charges as opposed to lying to FBI.
ok, not sure if it’s a perfect analogy, but it’s still well snarkified:
She called Pinedo’s crime “serious,” but also noted the “significant mitigating factors,” including his timely acceptance of responsibility, his cooperation with the government, his age, and his lack of criminal history.
“Never did it cross my mind,” Pinedo said, that the information that he was providing to his customers was being used for the crimes that the Russian trolls have been accused of.
<img src="/uploads/default/original/3X/b/d/bd7484cb940d3f22700d7271c00259756a7c8e97.png" width="480" height="313">I believe he was prosecuted in CA federal district court.
I think it is a reasonable assumption that he also ties the Russians directly to the purchase of the ads as the link to the bank accounts and fake identities.
err…never. White-collar criminals are considered the cream of the justice system and so must be cosseted and made to feel special because the system says to itself, “There but for the grace of god go I.”
Wow.
That is rich.
He’s whining bc his personal info ended up “all over the internet” causing chaos for him & family?
You sold ppl’s personal info on the internet. That’s why you’re going to prison dumbass.
There is NO genuine remorse from any of these very stable criminal geniuses.
I call BS on any crap about him not being a white collar criminal or that he got treated harshly…or that any of that has to do with his ethnicity. He was committing fraud, larceny, and selling to the Russian underworld. He was facilitating some of the biggest crimes this country has ever seen (the infiltration of a foreign entity) and the stealing of an election.
“getting swept up into the Mueller probe” wasn’t what turned his life upside down and he got treated much more fairly and decently than any Republican or Russian hitman/govt. would have treated him. Conspiring to steal innocent people’s money and identity and selling it to cut-throat international mobsters is what turned his life upside down.
He got less than a yr. The 14 day and 1 month sentences are jokes too, by the way. Also possible Mueller’s hands were tied on sentencing.
His rhetoric is very dangerous, definitely not the call for civility we hear from the President.
I dont know how Mueller’s hands would be tied. The Sentencing Guidelines provide the framework for the Judge to start at. He got a cooperation letter, and that is usually the Government’s chance to advocate for leniency, while setting forth the bad the person did as well. They said he had not just provided “substantial assistance” but “significant assistance.” The Government also said he had saved the Investigation time by being forthcoming. The Government is not allowed to say “Judge give him X months, we think that is the appropriate sentence.” So that may be where their hands are tied.
[The judge] said she was “very sorry” about “the significant hardship this [case] has caused you and especially your family.”
She was sorry?? Maybe he should apologize to his family for his crimes putting them through this. If this MFer had been caught in a normal case for doing the same thing he likely would have gotten 3-5 years.
“Never did it cross my mind,” Pinedo said, that the information that he was providing to his customers was being used for those crimes.
But you knew that it was being used for crimes. Just not these particular ones. So fuck you.
Yes your last line is what I meant. I doubt Mueller could step in and say “two weeks” .
Ok. Yeah, there was this Senior Federal Judge, getting way up in years, who was always bitching that in Cooperation cases, the Government never was “man” or “woman” enough to stand up and say what they recommended the sentence to be. Because he always did it when he was an AUSA. Back in the Ice Age. .
Money quote right here:
"Never did it cross my mind,” Pinedo said, that the information that he was providing to his customers was being used for those crimes.
I’m shocked I tell you, shocked, that criminals would want to buy stolen information. I also sell guns and I’d be shocked if a criminal wanted to buy a gun to shoot people. I always assumed people bought my stolen identities to give to orphans and puppy dogs.