the american's name is richard pinedo. what we learned when they unsealed this plea agreement is he agreed to cooperation with prosecutors, and agreed to be made guilty to identity theft for his role in the scheme. basically, what we learned was that he had been running an illicit business online where he bought and sold bank account information and helped people set up paypal accounts using that stolen information. the russians involved in the online propaganda effort to tilt the 2016 election to donald trump, they used accounts they had set up with his help to buy online ads and pay for other stuff related to their part of the election interference scheme. well, today richard pinedo got sentenced for that. he got six months in prison, six months' house arrest and two years' probation after all of that is over. but we also found out at the sentencing hearing today, because we just got the transcript from the hearing, we

then he says this about his dad, who unfortunately is also named richard pinedo. >> the judge then goes at length, explaining the reasoning behind her sentencing. she says pinedo deserves credit for his cooperation, that he was remorseful for his actions, but in the end, she says he's going to jail, six months federal prison, six months house arrest and two years' probation. that is the lowest end of what she could give him within the sentencing guidelines. that's the longest sentence yet in the mueller investigation. as such, it probably means something to these guys, who are all awaiting their own sentences in the russia scandal. trump campaign chairman paul manafort, rick gates, mike flynn, michael cohen. all awaiting federal sentencing right now. among them, it has to land with a thud that the other cooperator with a guilty plea in this case, the one nobody who has ever heard of, the bit player, today he got six months in federal prison. with the special counsel's office still not tipping their hand as to which shoes are next to drop, even in cases related to him, and which charges

went on at great length about the seriousness of the type of fraud and the type of theft that richard pinedo committed, but then, this is how they closed their filing. quote, at the same time, the government recognizes that since being confronted by law enforcement, mr. pinedo readily admitted his own misconduct and provided significant assistance to the government in its own investigation of the facts. for example, at the government's request, mr. pinedo promptly flew to the district of columbia and answered questions posed by the government and acknowledged his criminal conduct. he explained how he obtained the account numbers later sold for profit, and he provided the government with access to records identifying buyers of the accounts. mr. pinedo's prompt acceptance of responsibility saved the government significant time and resources in the investigation. in other words, it's okay if you don't lock him up. but whether or not he does get locked up, ultimately that is for the judge to decide, and that sentencing will take place tomorrow morning, so, we shall see. if richard pinedo does ge

we did have one individual sentenced this week, richard pinedo will go to prison. >> it's an important point you bring up, david. the mueller investigation continues to go at its own rate. as jill notes, it's done quietly. we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes and every ones in a while, something like this guy, pinedo, gets sentenced to six months in prison. we know that the mueller team continues to compile evidence, continues to speak to people and gets people to cooperate. we know that paul manafort is n now going to be cooperating with the mueller team. as opposed to the questions posed, there's no real value added. what are we're going to get from 15 questions? we need to know about the possible obstruction, we need to know about the president's tweets, the firing of comey. what happened at the trump tower meeting and what was trump's reaction thereafter? i applaud that there's political theater going on in a legal sense that trump's team can say, look, we're cooperating, but you'll never get any answers until the president sits down and talks to robert mueller. >