SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA — Carmen Lineberger, the former managing assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida, was indicted on two counts of theft of government property, one count of concealing a public record, one count of removing a public record, and one count of altering a public record. She was arraigned and pleaded not guilty.

The charges focus on a sealed report written by former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. According to the indictment, Lineberger downloaded Volume II of the report in December 2024 and saved it under the file name "Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf," then emailed the file from her Justice Department account to her personal email account.

In September 2025, Lineberger downloaded portions of an internal Justice Department memorandum, saved them under the file name "Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf," and emailed them to her personal email account. The September 2025 action formed the basis for the charges involving the internal memorandum.

Volume II covers the portion of Smith's investigation dealing with classified documents. One week after the election-related parts of the report were released, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon blocked former Attorney General Merrick Garland and his successors from releasing Volume II.

One day after Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025, Cannon ruled that the Justice Department could not release or share Smith's report on the probe because doing so could prejudice two Trump staffers whose criminal cases remained open. The Volume II report was compiled after Smith charged Trump in 2023 with retaining sensitive government documents from his first term and storing them at Mar-a-Lago.