In less than a week, the U.S. attorney in Miami supervising the probe of Obama-Biden era government weaponization secured indictments against Cuban communist dictator Raul Castro and an alleged money launderer for Venezuelan strongarm man Nicolas Maduro.

But it was Jason Reding Quinones’ indictment against one of his own former federal prosecutors for trying to steal a sealed, classified report from Jack Smith’s investigation of President Donald Trump that may have sent the loudest shockwaves through government.

The charges against former Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen Mercedes Lineberger carry more than 20 years in prison, and put on notice the current and former FBI agents, intelligence community spies and prosecutors whose conduct is currently being examined by a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Fla.

“It’s not only a message to any prosecutor, it's a message to any government employee that you have an obligation, you take an oath to work for the government, and you take that oath to support and defend the Constitution, and to do your duties well and faithfully, and we take that here in the Southern District of Florida very seriously,” Quinones told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview.

In Fort Pierce, where Lineberger worked, the special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova is exploring whether a decade long pursuit of Trump by Obama-Biden era intel and law enforcement officials amounted to a criminal conspiracy to violate the president’s and his followers’ civil rights.

Lineberger played a role in one part of that pursuit, assisting from her Fort Pierce office Smith’s probe into classified memos found during a raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. 

As she was preparing to retire, Lineberger tried to steal the sealed, classified report Smith wrote before he dismissed his charges against Trump, according to the indictment handed up by a grand jury last week.

“This is a troubling case, because it's from one of our, our former, not only federal prosecutors, assistant US attorneys, but one of our former leaders,” Quinones said. “It's a person that ran an office in Fort Pierce, that we call a managing assistant United States Attorney, and there's very serious charges against her.

“What she was trying to do is steal government documents. For what purpose, we'll let that come out when she has her day in court," Quinones explained. "She was trying to steal government documents for some purpose that she wasn't authorized for, and she renamed those government documents you know, Bundt cake recipe, chocolate chip cookies. This is very, very serious stuff.”

Lineberger pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.

The department, in announcing the charges, said that in separate instances in late 2025, Lineberger altered the electronic file names of government records that she received in her official capacity "to conceal" her unauthorized electronic transmission of the records to personal email accounts belonging to her "without being detected.” 

The altered government records included a document that included parts of internal DOJ electronic messages, an internal DOJ memorandum and a DOJ report related to a criminal prosecution that had been court-ordered to remain under seal and prohibited from distribution or disclosure outside of the department, the DOJ also said.

Lineberger allegedly attempted to conceal her actions by saving electronic copies of the government records in question under misleading file names such as “chocolate cake recipe” and “Bundt cake recipe” before emailing the documents to her personal email accounts.

The DOJ also said Wednesday that Lineberger also acted "knowing that her transmission of the record outside DOJ directly violated the court order and impaired the proper administration of the underlying criminal prosecution."

“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 said. “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.”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversaw this element of Smith’s special counsel investigation, ruled in February 2026 that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and all DOJ officials and employees were all barred from releasing, transmitting, or sharing the second volume of Smith’s report on Trump.

Quinones said his team was floored by the alleged conduct when it was discovered late last year.

“When I came into office, I gave this office a mission, and that mission is a three-part sentence: protect Americans, restore impartial justice and defend the rule of law, and I chose those words very carefully,” he said.

Lineberger’s current online biography says that she is a “Retired Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney” from the Southern District of Florida.

She is also on the advisory board of the National Black Prosecutors Foundation and is the continuing legal education chair for the National Black Prosecutors Association. Lineberger praised President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and critiqued Trump DOJ policies in the past while she was an active DOJ attorney.

The DOJ’s website currently lists Lineberger as among its “DOJ Ambassadors to Law Schools” and says she is a DOJ ambassador to Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando, Nova Southeastern University–Shepard Broad Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, and Villanova University School of Law in Pennsylvania.