Carmen Lineberger Charged in Jack Smith Report Case

Carmen Lineberger, a former federal prosecutor in Florida, was charged after prosecutors said she sent herself a sealed jack smith report tied to Donald Trump’s classified documents case. The indictment was unsealed Wednesday, and Lineberger pleaded not guilty in West Palm Beach.

The filing accuses Lineberger of theft of government property and concealment of government records. Prosecutors said the report, prepared by Jack Smith and his team, recapped their investigation into Trump’s retention of top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.

West Palm Beach Court Appearance

Lineberger worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch. Prosecutors said she sent the report to her personal email account last year while serving as a Justice Department prosecutor.

The indictment says she altered the original file name to "Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf" and saved the retitled file on her government computer before emailing it to herself. The filing does not explain why she may have wanted the report in her personal inbox.

Sealed Jack Smith Report

The report has never been made public. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon backed arguments from Trump’s lawyers that releasing it would be unfairly prejudicial after Smith abandoned the case following Trump’s 2024 election victory.

Smith’s documents case accused Trump of illegally retaining dozens of classified records at Mar-a-Lago and obstructing government efforts to get them back. The same judicial district handled that case and Lineberger’s work in the southern Florida office.

With the indictment now unsealed and Lineberger entering a not guilty plea, the case moves into the criminal court process in West Palm Beach on charges tied to the handling of a sealed government report.