A federal judge’s order that a special counsel report remain sealed set the stage for new allegations, as prosecutors charged a former Justice Department prosecutor with sending a copy of the report to her personal email account. The indictment, made public Wednesday, says Carmen Lineberger sent the materials while working at the department, even though the order barred Justice Department employees from sharing, transmitting or distributing copies of the report.
Lineberger faces charges including theft of government property and concealment of government records, according to the indictment. She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach.
Prosecutors allege that Lineberger mailed the special counsel report to herself by email after she had access to it in her professional role. The indictment says she sent a copy prepared by special counsel Jack Smith and his team, which recapped their investigation into Trump’s alleged retention of top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
The report was among materials tied to the criminal case that accused Trump of illegally keeping dozens of classified records from his first term and obstructing efforts to recover them. The indictment says that at the time Lineberger sent the report to her personal account, a judicial order barred department employees from sharing or distributing copies of the report.
The indictment also describes steps prosecutors say Lineberger took to conceal her actions. Prosecutors allege that she altered the original file name of the report to “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before saving the re-titled file on her government computer and emailing it to her personal email account, using a subject line that included “Bundt_Cake_Recipe,pdf.”
Separately, prosecutors allege that several months earlier Lineberger created on her government computer a document made up of portions of internal Justice Department messages and portions of an internal memorandum marked with header and footer notations indicating it was for official use. Prosecutors said she sent that material to her personal email address as an attached file titled “Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf.”
The indictment does not explain why Lineberger allegedly wanted to send the report to her own email account. Investigators and prosecutors described how the sealed report had never been seen by the public, tied to a judge’s ruling in the underlying matter.
In the underlying special counsel case, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers in arguments over prejudice after special counsel Jack Smith abandoned the case following Trump’s 2024 election victory. The AP report said the volume detailing Smith’s findings in that criminal investigation had not been publicly seen.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement posted on X that the bureau would not hesitate to hold people accountable for violating the public trust in an investigation that should not have been brought, according to the AP story. Lineberger’s attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment.