Ex-DOJ Prosecutor Charged With Stealing Jack Smith Report On Trump Case

A former federal prosecutor in Florida has been indicted on charges that she tried to take a sealed copy of special counsel Jack Smith‘s classified final report on President Donald Trump‘s classified documents case.

Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, was charged with theft of government property and concealment of government records, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday. She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach.

Prosecutors allege Lineberger sent the report to her personal email account while she was still working for the Justice Department. The document was part of Smith’s investigation into Trump’s retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach estate.

According to the indictment, Lineberger allegedly tried to disguise the file by changing its name to “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before saving it to her government computer and emailing it to herself. The indictment does not say why she allegedly wanted the report.

Trump was accused in 2023 of illegally retaining classified documents after leaving office and obstructing government efforts to recover them. He pleaded not guilty, and U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in July 2024 after finding that Smith had been unlawfully appointed.

Smith later moved to drop the case against Trump after Trump’s 2024 election victory, citing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. The appeal involving Trump’s co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, also came to an end.

The sealed report at the center of Lineberger’s indictment is Volume II of Smith’s final report, the portion dealing with the classified documents investigation. The election interference volume was released in January 2025, but the documents volume has remained under seal.

In February, Cannon permanently blocked the release of the classified documents report, saying its publication could unfairly prejudice Trump and his co-defendants and raise concerns involving grand jury material. Cannon found that release would create a “manifest injustice.”

That secrecy made the alleged conduct more significant. The report was not simply an internal memo. It was a sealed special counsel document connected to a criminal case involving classified material, a former president, and allegations of obstruction.

Lineberger worked in the same federal district where Smith’s classified documents case was filed. The Southern District of Florida handled the prosecution after the FBI recovered government records from Mar-a-Lago, and prosecutors alleged that classified documents had been retained after Trump left the White House.

The Justice Department has not publicly accused Lineberger of leaking the report to the press or giving it to another person. The charges, as reported, center on the alleged removal and concealment of government records.

The case now places a former DOJ lawyer in the unusual position of defending herself against allegations tied to a prosecution that once targeted the president. Lineberger’s attorney did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.