We've all heard the old gag about smuggling a file into a prison inmate where the fire was baked inside a cake. But a former Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney smuggling confidential material by emailing it to herself disguised as cake recipes? That's a new one.
And yet, that's what allegedly happened, and the alleged perp is a former Managing Assistant United States Attorney, to boot. FBI Director Kash Patel broke the news on his official X account on Wednesday.
🚨 This afternoon, 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.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) May 20, 2026
Carmen Lineberger allegedly emailed the confidential material to her…
The post reads:
This afternoon, 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 them as dessert recipes to conceal them from record searches.
Lineberger is charged with four felony counts in the indictment.
This 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.
A press release from the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida has more details on the indictment.
Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, 62, of Port St. Lucie, has been indicted in federal court for two counts of theft of government money or property, valued less than $1,000.00; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; and concealment, removal, or mutilation of public records. John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida announced the charges.
The indictment alleges at the time of the offenses the defendant served as the Managing Assistant United States Attorney (MAUSA) of the Fort Pierce branch of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. In separate instances in late-2025, the defendant altered the electronic file names of government records that she received in her official capacity as the MAUSA in order to conceal her unauthorized electronic transmission of those records to personal email accounts belonging to her without being detected. The altered government records included a document compiled by the defendant consisting of portions of internal DOJ electronic messages and an internal DOJ memorandum, and a DOJ report related to a criminal prosecution in the SDFL that had been court-ordered to remain under seal and prohibited from distribution or disclosure outside of DOJ.
It's impossible to see this as anything but deliberate, although what's less clear is what she planned to do with those documents.
Read More: FBI Offering New Reward for Former Counterintelligence Specialist Charged With Espionage for Iran
Here, though, is the icing on the (hah) cake.
As alleged in the indictment, the defendant concealed her actions by saving electronic copies of the government records in question under the misleading files names “chocolate cake recipe” and “bundt cake recipe” before electronically transmitting those records to her personal email accounts.
Now, someone who works as a Managing Assistant United States Attorney, we would hope, is a person with a few IQ points to rub together, and someone who would understand electronic data security, not to mention the measures that the government goes to to monitor and protect confidential data. And yet, Carmen Lineberger thought it a good idea to just disguise these documents by changing the file name to "Aunt Betsy's Special Chocolate Cake"? She really thought that would work?
Now, she faces four felony counts. If convicted, forget her sentence, which presumably will involve some time on the wrong side of the bars, even if it's in a white-collar Club Fed. No, if she's convicted, no security clearance ever again; no federal or, likely, state job ever again. No law firm will trust her with confidential records. No job that would involve her signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) would touch her.
In fact, no employer, public or private, will ever touch her employment application with an 11-foot bohunk, which is what you use when a 10-foot pole is too short. And somewhere, somehow, Carmen Lineberger must have somehow, against all rational expectations, thought she'd get away with it.
Amazing.
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