Kash Patel wrote on X that “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 it as dessert recipes to conceal it from record searches. Lineberger is charged with four felony counts in the indictment. The 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 Story
The former federal prosecutor, Carmen Lineberger of Port St. Lucie, is facing criminal charges. She allegedly stole sealed court records related to a criminal case against President Donald Trump.
She faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Lineberger, 62, worked as the managing assistant U.S. attorney at the Fort Pierce branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
That is the branch that was hearing the classified documents case.
The charges against Trump were dismissed in 2024. The charges against his two co-defendants were also dismissed in 2025.
The indictment against Lineberger says she sent internal Justice Department documents related to the case to her personal email account. She disguised the file names. The files were marked “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY – INTERNAL DOJ USE ONLY.”
According to the indictment, Lineberger created a document containing DOJ memos. She saved the file as “Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf” and emailed it from her DOJ account to her personal account in September 2025. In December 2025, the indictment says Lineberger downloaded a case report, changed the file name to “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” and emailed it to herself.
Wonder if Carmen is still going to headline the @NBPA1983 conference in July — what do you think? She is their CLE chair, after all…
Also, is the National Black Prosecutors Association going to foot the bill for her legal defense? They do fly her around the country… https://t.co/fgav8Ys60v pic.twitter.com/MbQNxJtBcL
— Marco Polo (@MarcoPolo501c3) May 20, 2026