A former U.S. attorney who helped investigate President Donald Trump faces a bar complaint in Pennsylvania after an indictment charged her with mishandling documents related to the probe.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board “should pursue discipline” regarding Carmen Lineberger’s law license in the state if she is convicted of her federal charges, the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) said in the Tuesday complaint obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Trump administration’s May indictment accused Lineberger of storing files from former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Florida case against Trump on personal email accounts under the names “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” and “Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf.”
“Lineberger should be investigated for her alleged efforts to steal documents she was not permitted to take in her civilian capacity,” CASA told the board. “Not only was it a crime to do so, but the manner in which she took the documents was dishonest, deceitful, and misrepresented to her employer the nature of what she was taking.”
An attorney for Lineberger declined to comment to the DCNF.
Smith and Lineberger’s probe under former President Joe Biden led to charges that Trump illegally stored classified documents at his Florida estate after his first presidential term. Smith dropped the Florida case and another case alleging 2020 election meddling after Trump won reelection and a judge declared Smith’s special counsel appointment unconstitutional in 2024.
CASA’s complaint alleges Lineberger is also breaking Pennsylvania’s rules by continuing to claim her Department of Justice (DOJ) address in Florida, citing her public listing on the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board’s website. Her profile still says she is employed by the DOJ.
“Additionally, the manner in which Lineberger went about stealing records also demonstrates dishonesty, deceit and misrepresentation,” CASA wrote. “Here, she renamed the files to suggest that the documents were cake recipes. This demonstrates that she knew that—at the very least— someone in authority would not permit her to possess the records she was converting to her private email. She was covering up the true nature of the contents to evade authority, regardless of whether she knew that she was committing a crime.”
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