A former federal prosecutor is facing serious legal trouble after being indicted for allegedly stealing and concealing sensitive government records. Carmen Lineberger, who previously served as the managing assistant U.S. attorney in Fort Pierce, Florida, is accused of mishandling an unreleased volume of the report compiled by special counsel Jack Smith. As detailed by the U.S. Department of Justice, that specific volume relates to the investigation into classified documents found at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
According to the indictment returned on Tuesday, Lineberger attempted to cover her tracks by renaming sensitive government files to resemble innocuous recipes. She saved the records under the file names “Chocolate_Cake_Recipe.pdf” and “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before transmitting them to her personal Hotmail and Gmail accounts. It is a bizarre detail in what is otherwise a serious federal case.
Lineberger appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, for her arraignment. She entered a not guilty plea to four charges: one felony count of obstruction of justice, one felony count of concealing government records, and two misdemeanor counts of stealing government property valued under $1,000. She was released on her own recognizance following the proceeding.
The maximum possible sentence is steep, but federal guidelines typically bring that figure down considerably
The charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, though federal defendants routinely receive significantly shorter terms than statutory maximums under sentencing guidelines. The case is being investigated jointly by the FBI and the DOJ Office of the Inspector General. Amid separate DOJ legal actions against state governments, prosecution here has been assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christie S. Utt from the Northern District of Florida to avoid conflicts of interest given Lineberger’s professional ties to the Southern District.
At the time of the alleged offenses in late 2025, Lineberger was serving in her official capacity as managing assistant U.S. attorney. The indictment alleges she received a copy of the restricted Smith report volume by email and then forwarded it, along with internal DOJ messages and a memorandum, to her personal accounts. That transmission directly violated an order issued by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who had barred public release of that specific volume.
The indictment and the DOJ press release do not offer any explanation for why Lineberger moved the documents to her private email in the first place. The filing also stays quiet on the specific contents of the other internal emails and memorandum she transferred. Amid ongoing Republican Party internal disputes over the Epstein files, this case adds to a broader climate of tension around what gets released and what gets suppressed within federal legal circles.
An indictment is an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Her attorney, Tama Kudman, has not provided a comment.
Published: May 21, 2026 07:30 am