This image, filed in a court filing by the Justice Department on August 30, 2022, and partially modified by Source, shows a photo of documents seized during the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property on August 8, 2022.
Department of Justice AP
A former federal prosecutor has been accused of stealing a sealed volume of a report prepared by then-special counsel Jack Smith about the dormant criminal case against President Donald Trump over his retention of classified government documents after leaving office in January 2021.
carmen mercedes linebarger is accused in four cases indictment Smith was revealed on Wednesday to have saved sealed portions of the report on her government-owned computer under the file name “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” and then emailed the report from her DOJ email account to her personal Gmail account on December 1, 2025.
According to the indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, at the time of the alleged conduct, Linebarger, 62, was managing assistant U.S. attorney in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Linebarger has been charged in the indictment with theft of government property and felony charges related to deleting and altering public records.
Judge Eileen Cannon issued an order on January 21, 2025, prohibiting the DOJ, as well as its officials and employees, from “releasing, sharing, or disseminating” Volume II of Smith’s report, which was filed with the court.
Linebarger appeared in court in Fort Pierce on Wednesday and was released without posting bond.
CNBC has requested comment from Linebarger’s criminal defense attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Cannon dismissed the DOJ’s criminal case against Trump in July 2024, alleging that he retained hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Club residence in Palm Beach, Florida, after the end of his first term and that he obstructed government efforts to recover the documents.
Canon ruled that Smith’s appointment to prosecute cases involving Trump violates the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution.
Smith then appealed that dismissal. But the DOJ abandoned that effort after Trump is elected to a second, non-consecutive term in the White House in November 2024 because of a department policy that prohibits federal prosecution of sitting presidents.