Overview
- Carmen Mercedes Lineberger was federally indicted and pleaded not guilty at her arraignment on Wednesday for stealing and concealing sealed Justice Department records tied to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.
- Prosecutors say she saved the sealed Volume II report to her government computer, renamed it 'Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf,' and emailed it to a personal Gmail account in December 2025.
- The indictment also alleges she sent internal DOJ messages and a memorandum to a personal Hotmail account in September 2025 with the subject line 'chocolate cake recipe' to hide the transmissions.
- She faces four felony counts including theft of government property, falsifying records and concealment or removal of public records with potential prison terms that include up to 20 years on a falsification count.
- The case is now in pretrial stages and is being examined both criminally and administratively by the DOJ Office of Inspector General and the FBI while the sealed report remains under a court order restricting its release.