Washington
Prosecutor charged with sending herself copy of Smith report on Trump classified files investigation
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former federal prosecutor in Miami is facing federal charges over allegations that she sent to her personal email account a report that a judge had ordered to be kept secret detailing Jack Smith's investigation into President Donald Trump's hoarding of classified documents, according to court papers unsealed Wednesday.
Carmen Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in Palm Beach to charges of theft of government property. Her attorney did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The indictment accuses her of sending to her personal Hotmail account a copy of the Smith report with a subject line of "chocolate cake recipe."
The Authorities say she illegally tried to email herself from her government account the volume of Smith's report about the classified documents prosecution case after a Trump-appointed judge barred its public release.
The volume detailing Smith's findings in a criminal investigation once seen as posing significant legal peril to Trump has never been seen by the public. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon backed arguments from Trump's lawyers that it would be unfairly prejudicial to release the report after Smith abandoned the case in the aftermath of Trump's 2024 election victory.
Lineberger worked in the same judicial district where Smith's documents case against Trump was filed. That case accused Trump of illegally retaining at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach dozens of classified records from his first term in office and obstructing government efforts to get them back.
Washington
Officers who defended Capitol from rioters sue to block payouts from $1.8B fund
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from an attack by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters sued on Wednesday to block anyone — including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters — from receiving payouts from a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for people who claim to be victims of politically motivated prosecutions.
The officers’ attorneys filed the federal lawsuit a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund’s creation during a congressional hearing. Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for fund payouts.
The lawsuit claims the government’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is an illegal slush fund that Trump will use to “finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.” It describes the fund’s creation as “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century” and calls for dissolving it.
“No statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law,” the suit says.
The fund stems from a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. It’s designed to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by prior administrations’ Justice Department. Decisions on payouts will be made by a five-member commission appointed by the attorney general.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot. Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, but Trump used his pardon powers to erase all of those cases in a sweeping act of clemency last year.
The plaintiffs suing Trump over the fund are Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who is running in Maryland for a seat in Congress. Hodges and Dunn both testified before Congress about their harrowing experiences on Jan. 6. Videos captured a rioter ripping a mask off Hodges as he was pinned against a door during a fight for control of a tunnel entrance.
The officers claim the fund “encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so.”
On Tuesday, members of Congress peppered Blanche with questions about the fund. He described it as “unusual” but not unprecedented. Blanche failed to acknowledge that Trump’s Justice Department has investigated and prosecuted some of the Republican president’s political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also are named as defendants in the officers’ lawsuit. Spokespeople for the Justice and Treasury departments didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit.
Florida
Goodell says NFL is cooperating with state AG
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league is cooperating with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier after being issued a subpoena.
Uthmeier sent the subpoena to the NFL on May 13 as his office investigates whether the league has committed potential civil rights violations related to the Rooney Rule and the league’s other employment practices, policies and programs.
Uthmeier threatened possible enforcement actions against the league in March if it didn’t suspend the 23-year-old Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions. At least one minority candidate must be interviewed for the quarterbacks coach position.
Uthmeier said in a letter to Goodell that the Rooney Rule amounts to “blatant race and sex discrimination.”
The subpoena orders the league to appear at the attorney general’s office in Tallahassee, Florida, on June 12. It asks the league to produce extensive documents, including “all diversity reports, coaching census data, or demographic surveys that reflect the race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present.”
Among the programs being reviewed by Uthmeier’s office is the accelerator program, which the league created in 2022 as an extension of the Rooney Rule to increase diversity among coaches and front office executives.
The accelerator program gives participants an opportunity to connect with owners and team executives, and attend informative sessions designed to equip them for future interviews.
The NFL held its revamped accelerator program on Monday and Tuesday in Orlando after pausing it last May. It now includes nonminority participants and nearly half of this year’s group were white men.
Prosecutor charged with sending herself copy of Smith report on Trump classified files investigation
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former federal prosecutor in Miami is facing federal charges over allegations that she sent to her personal email account a report that a judge had ordered to be kept secret detailing Jack Smith's investigation into President Donald Trump's hoarding of classified documents, according to court papers unsealed Wednesday.
Carmen Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in Palm Beach to charges of theft of government property. Her attorney did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The indictment accuses her of sending to her personal Hotmail account a copy of the Smith report with a subject line of "chocolate cake recipe."
The Authorities say she illegally tried to email herself from her government account the volume of Smith's report about the classified documents prosecution case after a Trump-appointed judge barred its public release.
The volume detailing Smith's findings in a criminal investigation once seen as posing significant legal peril to Trump has never been seen by the public. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon backed arguments from Trump's lawyers that it would be unfairly prejudicial to release the report after Smith abandoned the case in the aftermath of Trump's 2024 election victory.
Lineberger worked in the same judicial district where Smith's documents case against Trump was filed. That case accused Trump of illegally retaining at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach dozens of classified records from his first term in office and obstructing government efforts to get them back.
Washington
Officers who defended Capitol from rioters sue to block payouts from $1.8B fund
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from an attack by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters sued on Wednesday to block anyone — including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters — from receiving payouts from a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for people who claim to be victims of politically motivated prosecutions.
The officers’ attorneys filed the federal lawsuit a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund’s creation during a congressional hearing. Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for fund payouts.
The lawsuit claims the government’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is an illegal slush fund that Trump will use to “finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.” It describes the fund’s creation as “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century” and calls for dissolving it.
“No statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law,” the suit says.
The fund stems from a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. It’s designed to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by prior administrations’ Justice Department. Decisions on payouts will be made by a five-member commission appointed by the attorney general.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot. Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, but Trump used his pardon powers to erase all of those cases in a sweeping act of clemency last year.
The plaintiffs suing Trump over the fund are Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who is running in Maryland for a seat in Congress. Hodges and Dunn both testified before Congress about their harrowing experiences on Jan. 6. Videos captured a rioter ripping a mask off Hodges as he was pinned against a door during a fight for control of a tunnel entrance.
The officers claim the fund “encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so.”
On Tuesday, members of Congress peppered Blanche with questions about the fund. He described it as “unusual” but not unprecedented. Blanche failed to acknowledge that Trump’s Justice Department has investigated and prosecuted some of the Republican president’s political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also are named as defendants in the officers’ lawsuit. Spokespeople for the Justice and Treasury departments didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit.
Florida
Goodell says NFL is cooperating with state AG
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league is cooperating with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier after being issued a subpoena.
Uthmeier sent the subpoena to the NFL on May 13 as his office investigates whether the league has committed potential civil rights violations related to the Rooney Rule and the league’s other employment practices, policies and programs.
Uthmeier threatened possible enforcement actions against the league in March if it didn’t suspend the 23-year-old Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions. At least one minority candidate must be interviewed for the quarterbacks coach position.
Uthmeier said in a letter to Goodell that the Rooney Rule amounts to “blatant race and sex discrimination.”
The subpoena orders the league to appear at the attorney general’s office in Tallahassee, Florida, on June 12. It asks the league to produce extensive documents, including “all diversity reports, coaching census data, or demographic surveys that reflect the race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present.”
Among the programs being reviewed by Uthmeier’s office is the accelerator program, which the league created in 2022 as an extension of the Rooney Rule to increase diversity among coaches and front office executives.
The accelerator program gives participants an opportunity to connect with owners and team executives, and attend informative sessions designed to equip them for future interviews.
The NFL held its revamped accelerator program on Monday and Tuesday in Orlando after pausing it last May. It now includes nonminority participants and nearly half of this year’s group were white men.
