DOJ Prosecutor Charged With Stealing Docs as 'Dessert Recipes'

Summary

A former managing assistant US attorney, Carmen Lineberger, has been criminally charged with stealing confidential Department of Justice documents related to the Trump prosecution. Allegedly, she emailed these confidential materials, including portions of an internal DOJ memorandum marked 'for official use only,' to her personal email accounts. To conceal her actions, Lineberger disguised the files with innocent-sounding names like 'chocolate cake recipe.pdf' and 'bundt cake recipe.pdf.' She is facing four felony counts, including theft of government property and alteration/mutilation of documents. The indictment states she acted to hide the transmission of these documents from record searches, in potential violation of a judicial order prohibiting the release of such information outside the DOJ. The maximum penalties range from one year imprisonment and a $100,000 fine for theft, to 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for falsification of records. The case is jointly investigated by the FBI, DOJ, and the Office of the Inspector General.