A former federal prosecutor from Florida, Carmen Lineberger, has been charged with offenses including theft of government property and concealment of government records. According to an indictment, while working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Lineberger sent a special counsel report from the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s classified documents to her personal email, despite a court order keeping it sealed.
Lineberger, who managed the Fort Pierce branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, pleaded not guilty to the charges during her court appearance in West Palm Beach. Her attorney has not yet responded to requests for comments.
Prosecutors allege that last December, Lineberger sent a report by special counsel Jack Smith, detailing the investigation into Trump’s retention of top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, to her personal email account. At the time, a judicial order prohibited Justice Department employees from sharing or distributing copies of the report.
The indictment claims Lineberger tried to hide her actions by renaming the report file to ‘Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf’ before saving it on her government computer and emailing it to her personal account under the same file name.
Months earlier, the indictment states Lineberger created a document on her government computer that included portions of internal Justice Department communications and an official memorandum. This material was sent to her personal email with the file name ‘Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf.’ The indictment does not clarify why she emailed the report to herself, which she accessed professionally.
This report contained details of a criminal investigation that posed significant legal challenges for Trump. However, the volume of findings has never been disclosed to the public. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers to keep the report sealed, as they claimed its release would be prejudicial after the case was abandoned following Trump’s 2024 election win.
Lineberger was in the same judicial district where Smith filed the case against Trump, accusing him of illegally keeping classified records from his first term at Mar-a-Lago and obstructing efforts to retrieve them.
FBI Director Kash Patel released a statement emphasizing accountability, stating, “This FBI will not hesitate to bring to account those who violated the trust of the American public in an investigation that should’ve never been brought to begin with.”