May 20 (Reuters) – A former U.S. Department of Justice attorney has been charged with emailing herself copies of an unreleased volume of Special Counsel ?Jack Smith’s report concerning the now-dismissed criminal case accusing President Trump ?of retaining classified documents after his first term.
Carmen Lineberger, who had worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, pleaded not guilty to charges ?related to the theft and concealment of government records during a ?Wednesday hearing in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Her ?lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump was ?accused in the case pursued by Smith of illegally storing documents related to ?U.S. national defense, including the American nuclear program, at his Mar-a-Lago social club and obstructing U.S. government efforts to retrieve the material.
Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump ?appointee, dismissed the indictment in 2024, finding that Smith had not ?been lawfully appointed by the Justice Department during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
Special counsels, who ?are ?appointed to lead certain politically sensitive investigations, are required to draft reports to the U.S. attorney general detailing their conclusions on whether to seek charges.
But Cannon last year barred disclosure of the portion of Smith’s final report that ?related to the ?classified documents case.
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