A former federal prosecutor in South Florida has been charged with sending herself some of the most closely guarded records from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Donald Trump. Prosecutors say Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, a former managing assistant U.S. attorney, disguised the files as dessert recipes while moving them to personal email accounts.
Lineberger, 62, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to two counts of theft of government money or property valued at less than $1,000. The case centers on records tied to Smith’s work on Trump and his handling of classified documents, including a report labeled “Volume II Report.”
What prosecutors say happened
According to the indictment, Lineberger received an email in January 2025 at her Justice Department account that contained copies of the Volume II Report. Prosecutors say that report reflected the final findings of Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified material.
Lineberger was serving in a supervisory role in the Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fort Pierce during the Trump investigation and prosecution. She was not part of the special counsel team, but the office did support some parts of Smith’s work before he was formally appointed.
Use of personal email accounts
The Justice Department alleges that Lineberger later compiled portions of an internal DOJ memorandum and sent them from her government account to her personal Hotmail account in September 2025. The message was reportedly labeled “chocolate cake recipe.”
She is also accused of reopening the earlier email containing the Volume II Report in December 2025 and forwarding it to her personal Gmail account under the file name “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf.” Prosecutors say those steps were used to move sensitive material outside government systems.
Court orders and sealed material
The indictment says the report was already covered by a January 2025 court order that barred any Justice Department official from “releasing, sharing or transmitting” it outside the department. That restriction came after District Judge Aileen Cannon moved to block release of Volume II in February 2026.
In a 15-page ruling, Cannon said it was “not customary” for a prosecutor to publicly release findings in a case that had been dismissed. She had previously thrown out the Trump case before he was re-elected to a second term, saying Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
Why the documents mattered
The filing points to intense legal fights over Smith’s material, with Trump Justice Department officials and lawyers for his co-defendants arguing that the special counsel’s filings should never be released and were invalid. That dispute made the handling of the records especially sensitive, even before the allegations against Lineberger emerged.
If convicted, Lineberger faces up to 20 years in prison. The case adds another layer to the long-running legal conflict over the Trump documents investigation and the handling of the special counsel’s confidential findings.
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