A year after Aileen Cannon threw out Jack Smith's case against Trump, one of Smith's own support prosecutors was still inside the DOJ.
Now she is the one facing federal charges for mishandling government records.
She stayed inside that building for a year after the case collapsed – and federal agents just found out why.
Carmen Lineberger Indicted for Stealing the Sealed Jack Smith Report
Carmen Lineberger ran the Fort Pierce branch as managing assistant U.S. attorney – a DEI advocate, an implicit bias trainer, and the continuing legal education chair for the National Black Prosecutors Association.
She was exactly the kind of career DOJ insider the Resistance counted on to still be there.
The Fort Pierce branch was no bystander to the Trump prosecution — it provided direct support to Jack Smith's work before a special counsel was even appointed, including during the August 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
In September 2025, Lineberger created a document containing an internal DOJ memorandum marked "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY – INTERNAL DOJ USE ONLY," renamed the file "Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf," and emailed it to her personal account.
Three months later, she did it again.
On December 1, 2025, Lineberger downloaded Volume II of Smith's final report – the sealed portion covering the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case – renamed it "Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf," and sent it to her personal Gmail.
Judge Aileen Cannon had issued an order in January 2025 explicitly prohibiting every DOJ officer, agent, official, and employee from "releasing, sharing, or transmitting" that report outside the department.
Lineberger did it anyway – nearly a year after Cannon's order took effect.
The indictment carries four counts: two for theft of government property, one for destruction and falsification of records in a federal investigation, and one for concealment and removal of public records.
The destruction and falsification charge alone carries up to 20 years in prison.
She appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach, entered a not guilty plea, and was released without posting bond.
To avoid conflicts of interest, prosecutors from outside the Southern District of Florida were assigned to handle the case — a detail that signals just how seriously the DOJ is treating it.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the charges on X.
"This afternoon, a former managing assistant U.S. Attorney who supported Jack Smith's politicized investigation of President Trump has been charged with stealing the confidential investigation documents. Carmen Lineberger allegedly emailed the confidential material to her own personal email, disguising them as dessert recipes to conceal them from record searches."
"This FBI will not hesitate to bring to account those who violated the trust of the American public in an investigation that should've never been brought to begin with."
The Part No One in the Media Will Say Out Loud
Smith's case against Trump was dismissed by Cannon in July 2024 – thrown out because she ruled Smith had been unlawfully appointed as special counsel in the first place.
Lineberger stayed inside the DOJ.
She kept her access.
In September 2025 – more than a year after the case was dead – she was still inside that building, downloading sealed documents and hiding them in recipe files.
The entire premise of the Jack Smith investigation was that Donald Trump had no right to keep government documents that belonged to the United States.
The woman who helped build that case allegedly spent months doing exactly what Smith accused Trump of doing – in deliberate defiance of a federal court order, disguising the evidence so no one could find it in a records search.
Jack Smith is now running a private law firm.
The investigation he ran is the one generating criminal referrals – against his own people.
James Comey said publicly just last weekend that multiple officials were still embedded inside DOJ and the FBI, working to continue the targeting of Trump.
Lineberger was one of them.
Sources:
- Kash Patel, post on X (@FBIDirectorKash), May 20, 2026.
- "Former DOJ Prosecutor Charged With Stealing Confidential Jack Smith Investigation Documents About Trump," Fox News, May 20, 2026.
- "Former DOJ Attorney Charged With Stealing 'Confidential' Documents," Breitbart, May 21, 2026.
- Brianna Lyman, "Prosecutor Whose Office Helped Jack Smith Accuse Trump of Stealing Govt Records Indicted for Stealing Govt Records," The Federalist, May 22, 2026.
