DOJ Accidentally Sent Volume II of Jack Smith's Report to Outside Counsel

The kicker? The Outside Counsel they accidentally sent the report to is representing a woman they charged with a crime for taking Volume II out of the DOJ

Remember back in May when Trump’s Justice Department charged a former prosecutor for sending herself copies of Jack Smith’s still-secret Volume II of Jack Smith’s report disguised as cake recipes?

Today we learned that the Department of Justice inadvertently did the same thing they charged the former prosecutor with; they sent Volume II to her lawyers on accident, violating Judge Cannon’s order to keep the report inside the DoJ.

On May 19th, Todd Blanche charged Carmen Lineberger with felony obstruction of justice and concealing government records, and misdemeanor theft of government property for emailing copies of Volume II to her Gmail and Hotmail accounts.

Today, the Justice Department filed notice to Judge Aileen Cannon that THEY wrongly emailed THREE copies of Volume II to Lineberger’s attorneys by accident during discovery production.

Upon confirmation by the Government, defense counsel voluntarily ceased review of the discovery material, affirmed they had not examined the documents in question, deleted all discovery materials already downloaded to their server, and cooperated with the Government’s efforts to recover the flash drives that same day.

In the indictment against Ms. Lineberger, the DOJ said:

On January 21, 2025, United States District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, presiding over the related federal criminal prosecution, issued an order regarding the Report, which prohibited “the Department of Justice, its officers, agents, officials, and employees from releasing, sharing, or transmitting [the Report] outside the Department of Justice, or otherwise releasing, distributing, conveying, or sharing with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions in [the Report] or in drafts thereof.”

The order issued by United States District Judge Cannon has remained in full force and effect since issued on January 21, 2025.

The indictment does NOT say why Ms. Lineberger sent herself two copies of Volume II. So who is going to indict the prosecutors who violated Judge Cannon’s order by sending THREE copies to outside counsel?

The 11th Circuit was set to hear oral arguments on third party challenges to Judge Cannon’s order blocking the report’s release, but on June 30th, that hearing was canceled “to be rescheduled at a later date.”

You can read the indictment against Ms. Lineberger here, and the DOJ filing about inadvertently emailing copies of the report here.