A veteran federal prosecutor who once helped oversee the now-collapsed Trump documents case is suddenly getting a taste of the other side of the courtroom — and prosecutors say the alleged cover-up reads like something out of a bad office sitcom.
Carmen Lineberger, a former managing assistant U.S. attorney in South Florida, has been indicted after allegedly emailing herself secret Justice Department material tied to former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s anti-Trump investigation — while disguising the files as cake recipes.
According to federal charging documents, Lineberger allegedly sent herself an unreleased portion of Smith’s report on President Trump using file names like “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf,” apparently hoping nobody would notice that the “dessert” attached to the email was actually sensitive government material connected to one of the most politically radioactive investigations in modern history.
The 62-year-old pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court in West Palm Beach. Her attorney stayed silent, which may have been the wisest legal strategy available under the circumstances.
Lineberger wasn’t some low-level paper-pusher buried in the bureaucracy. She was a senior DOJ official in Fort Pierce — the same office tied to the federal classified documents prosecution against Trump. That case famously imploded after a judge ruled Jack Smith had been improperly appointed as special counsel, blowing a massive hole in the legal foundation of the prosecution.
The newly unsealed indictment claims Lineberger received an electronic copy of the unreleased section of Smith’s report just days before Trump returned to the White House. Prosecutors allege she downloaded the material and fired it off to her personal Gmail account.
And the alleged “bundt cake” email wasn’t even the first dessert-themed disappearing act.
Federal prosecutors say Lineberger previously sent herself other confidential DOJ materials while masking them as a “chocolate cake recipe.” Apparently the Justice Department’s resistance movement had a bake-sale aesthetic.
She now faces four federal charges, including two counts of theft of government property, one count of altering records in a federal investigation, and one count related to concealing or removing public records. One of the charges carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years behind bars.
The leaked report itself remains under wraps. While the volume tied to Smith’s Jan. 6 probe was released publicly, the section involving the classified documents case was blocked by a federal judge, who warned disclosure could cause “irreparable damage” to the defendants — including Trump and two co-defendants.
FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t exactly sound sympathetic. “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,” Patel wrote on social media, blasting what many conservatives have long viewed as a politically driven crusade against Trump.
That sentiment has only intensified as more details emerge about the inner workings of the Smith investigation — an operation critics say burned through taxpayer money, stretched legal norms and still failed to land the political knockout punch Democrats spent years promising was right around the corner.
