The other indictment from Special Counsel Robert Mueller today was also a surprise. A plea agreement had already been reached, and a plea entered in federal court in DC. That all happened earlier this week. Not a peep.
Here’s the statement of offense filed as part of the plea agreement.
The essence of the case against Richard Pinedo is that he illegally “offered a variety of services designed to circumvent the security features of large online digital payment companies.”
How does that connect up with the Russia case? Mueller hasn’t indicated publicly. But the indictment of those 13 Russian nationals alleges: “Defendants and their co-conspirators purchased credit card and bank account numbers from online sellers for the unlawful purpose of evading security measures at PayPal.”
Connect the dots.
But again, all of Mueller’s dealing with Pinedo, as with former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos last year, stayed under seal and un-leaked, in Washington, D.C., no less.
