A former prosecutor for the Justice Department was officially charged with allegedly emailing confidential records connected to former special counsel Jack Smith and his investigation into President Donald Trump. Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, 62, is facing a total of four criminal charges in connection with her handling of Smith’s final report from the probe.
She’s looking at one felony count of obstruction of justice, one felony count of concealing government records, and two misdemeanor counts of theft of government property valued at less than $1,000. The indictment, which was filed in the Southern District of Florida, stated that Lineberger allegedly changed electronic file names of government records in order to hide unauthorized transmissions of the documents to her personal email accounts.
At the time of the incident, Lineberger was serving as the Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Fort Pierce branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The public release of Smith’s report, which was related to the investigation involving classified documents found at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, was blocked by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in January 2025.
According to Fox News, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the charges against Lineberger in a post on social media platform X. “This afternoon, a former managing assistant U.S. Attorney who supported Jack Smith’s politicized investigation of President Trump has been charged with stealing the confidential investigation documents,” Patel’s post said.
“Carmen Lineberger allegedly emailed the confidential material to her own personal email, disguising them as dessert recipes to conceal them from record searches,” he continued. Smith brought a series of indictments against the president, accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and improperly retaining classified national defense information.
Cannon later tossed out the classified documents case, ruling that Smith has been unlawfully appointed to the position of special counsel. Prosecutors say Lineberger covered up her actions by saving electronic copies of government records using deceptive file names like “chocolate cake recipe” and “bundt cake recipe.” She then sent the documents to a personal Hotmail account.
The indictment revealed that Lineberger received a copy of Smith’s report just before Cannon ordered it to be sealed. A few months later, she allegedly forwarded the report to her personal email account. It also said that Lineberger knew that sending the report outside of the Justice Department was a violation of Cannon’s order.
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During her appearance in federal court, Lineberger pleaded not guilty. If she is convicted of her crimes, she could be looking at spending two decades behind bars for concealment or removal of public records and a potential year in prison for each count of theft. President Trump shared a link to a story about Lineberger’s indictment, writing, “Deranged Jack Smith and his ‘gang’ are really bad news. Can never be allowed to happen again. They should all be prosecuted!” Conservatives celebrated the news of the indictment as a win in the war against lawfare and another giant leap forward in holding officials accountable for their actions.