A former federal prosecutor was indicted on charges she emailed herself confidential files from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of allegations that President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
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Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, 62, was charged with four counts related to stealing, concealing and altering government property and records, according to the nine-page indictment.
The Justice Department alleges that while she was a managing assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida last year, Lineberger received a copy of a confidential volume of Smith’s report. She altered file names of the volume, as well as other internal Justice Department materials, 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 including “chocolate cake recipe” and “bundt cake recipe” to avoid raising red flags about the downloaded 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 she is convicted on all charges, she could face 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, rather than a prosecutor from Lineberger’s former place of employment.
The files found in Lineberger’s personal email accounts include documents from a report a Trump-nominated federal judge ruled could not be released in February, according to the charging documents.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in February barred the public release of Smith’s report on whether Trump had mishandled classified documents after he left the White House in 2021. Cannon argued that since Smith had worked on the report after she dismissed the case against Trump in July 2024, Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
NBC News reported in March that a memo the Justice Department sent to Congress said Smith’s team had evidence Trump kept classified documents after he left office, including those related to his business interests.
