Former prosecutor emailed herself the unreleased Jack Smith report, DOJ alleges
A former federal prosecutor has been indicted for emailing confidential files from special prosecutor Jack Smith’s investigation into allegations that President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
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Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, 62, was charged with four counts related to theft, concealment and alteration of government property and records, according to the nine-page indictment.
The Justice Department alleges that, while she was serving as deputy U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida last year, Lineberger received a copy of a confidential volume of Smith’s report. She changed file names in the volume, as well as other internal Justice Department documents, and sent them to her personal Hotmail and Gmail accounts, according to court documents.
Court documents allege that from September to December, Lineberger used file names such as “chocolate cake recipe” and “bundt cake recipe” to avoid raising red flags about the uploaded files. The indictment does not say Lineberger shared the files with anyone.
Lineberger was arraigned in federal court Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Florida. If convicted on all counts, she faces more than 20 years in prison.
Lineberger’s attorney declined to comment to NBC News.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is prosecuting the case, instead of a prosecutor from Lineberger’s former workplace.
The files found in Lineberger’s personal email accounts include documents from a report that a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled could not be released in February, according to charging documents.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in February barred the release of Smith’s report on whether Trump mishandled classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021. Cannon argued that because Smith worked on the report after dismissing the case against Trump in July 2024, Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
NBC News reported in March that a memo sent by the Justice Department to Congress indicated that Smith’s team had evidence that Trump kept classified documents after he left office, including those related to his business interests.
