A former federal prosecutor in Florida has been indicted on federal charges after secretly emailing herself one of the most classified documents in American political history, a sealed report from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s handling of top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Carmen Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, faces charges including theft of government property and concealment of government records. She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach.
Prosecutors allege that Lineberger disguised the sensitive files as dessert recipes when sending them to her personal email accounts. She sent the report to her personal Hotmail account with the subject line “chocolate cake recipe.” Months later, she forwarded it again to her Gmail account, with the file renamed “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf.”
The volume detailing Smith’s findings in a criminal investigation once seen as posing significant legal peril to Trump has never been seen by the public. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers, who argued that releasing the report would be unfairly prejudicial after Smith abandoned the case following Trump’s 2024 election victory.
The report covered Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s retention of top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. At the time Lineberger sent the files, a judicial order explicitly barred all Justice Department employees from sharing, transmitting, or distributing any copies of the report.
The indictment does not reveal Lineberger’s motive for wanting the report on her personal accounts. What is clear, however, is that she went to significant lengths to hide what she was doing, renaming one of the most sensitive legal documents in recent American history as a baking file.
The case raises serious questions about what is inside Jack Smith’s sealed report and why someone would risk a federal criminal conviction to obtain it. The public has never seen Volume II of Smith’s findings, and Judge Cannon has permanently blocked its release. Whatever is inside, it was apparently worth hiding a cake recipe for.
What do you think is really inside Jack Smith’s sealed report on Trump?