A former federal prosecutor in South Florida has been indicted for allegedly stealing a sealed copy of Jack Smith’s Volume II report on President Trump’s classified documents investigation and emailing it to her personal Gmail account. The file name she allegedly used to disguise it: “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf.” Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, who served as the managing assistant U.S. attorney in the Fort Pierce branch of the Southern District of Florida, faces a four-count indictment that includes theft of government property and concealment of government records. She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach and was released without having to post bond. According to the indictment, Lineberger renamed the report "Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf" before attaching it to an email from her DOJ account to her personal Gmail account. https://t.co/PrMCriYkWi — Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) May 20, 2026 ABC News also reported the indictment development: New: DOJ charges prosecutor with attempting to steal report on Trump's classified docs case https://t.co/KxB0IUsdwA w/ @KFaulders @PCCharalambous — Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) May 20, 2026 The allegations are laid out in detail. Prosecutors say Lineberger, while still serving as a DOJ prosecutor last December, emailed the sealed report from her government account to her personal email on Dec. 1, 2025. That report, Volume II of the Jack Smith investigation, was ordered sealed by Judge Aileen Cannon and has never been seen by the public. The Associated Press laid out the core allegations from the indictment. A former federal prosecutor in Florida sent to her personal email account a special counsel report from the investigation into President Donald Trump’s classified documents case despite a judge’s order that it remain sealed, according to an indictment made public Wednesday. Carmen Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, faces charges including theft of government property and concealment of government records. She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach. Her attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Prosecutors allege that while serving as a Justice Department prosecutor last December, Lineberger sent a copy of the report that special counsel Jack Smith and his team had prepared, recapping their investigation into Trump’s retention of top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, to her personal email account. The indictment alleges that Lineberger sought to conceal her actions by altering the original file name of the report to “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before saving the re-titled file on her government computer and emailing it to her personal email account. Several months earlier, according to the indictment, Lineberger created on her computer a document consisting of portions of internal Justice Department messages, along with portions of an internal memorandum with header and footer markings indicating it was for official use only. Prosecutors say she sent the material to her personal email address via an attached file titled “chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf.” The indictment does not explain why Lineberger may have wanted to send the report, which prosecutors say she had access to in her professional capacity as a prosecutor, to her own email account. So the “Bundt_Cake_Recipe” was the sealed Jack Smith report, and an earlier batch of internal DOJ messages traveled under the name “chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf.” The indictment does not explain why Lineberger allegedly wanted the sealed report on her personal account. CNBC added details on the charges and Cannon order. A former federal prosecutor has been charged with stealing the sealed volume of the report prepared by then-special counsel Jack Smith about the criminal case against President Donald Trump over his retention of classified documents. Carmen Mercedes Lineberger is accused in a four-count indictment of saving the sealed portion of Smith’s report on her government-issued computer under the file name “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf.” Lineberger, who was a managing Assistant U.S. Attorney at the time, allegedly emailed the report from her DOJ email account to her personal Gmail account on Dec. 1, 2025. At the time of the alleged conduct, the 62-year-old Lineberger was managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in Fort Pierce, Florida, according to the indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Lineberger is charged with theft of government property and counts related to the removal and altering of public records in the indictment. Judge Aileen Cannon on Jan. 21, 2025 issued an order prohibiting the DOJ, as well as its officers and employees, from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting” Volume II of Smith’s report, which was filed in the court. Lineberger appeared in court in Fort Pierce on Wednesday and was released without having to post bond. Judge Cannon had sided with President Trump’s legal team, which argued that releasing the report would be unfairly prejudicial after Smith abandoned the case following Trump’s 2024 election victory. Cannon permanently blocked the report’s release in February. The investigation into Lineberger is being handled jointly by the FBI and the DOJ Office of Inspector General. To avoid conflicts of interest, a special prosecutor from outside the Southern District of Florida was assigned to the case. Gateway Pundit highlighted the DOJ language and special-prosecutor detail. Carmen Lineberger, the former Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in Fort Pierce, Florida, was indicted on two counts of theft of government money or property valued at less than $1,000, destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, and concealment, removal, or mutilation of public records. In separate instances in late 2025, the indictment alleges that Lineberger altered electronic file names of government records she received in her official capacity in order to conceal unauthorized electronic transmission of those records to personal email accounts belonging to her. The altered records allegedly included portions of internal DOJ electronic messages, an internal DOJ memorandum, and a DOJ report related to a criminal prosecution in the Southern District of Florida that had been court-ordered to remain under seal and prohibited from distribution or disclosure outside DOJ. As alleged in the indictment, Lineberger concealed her actions by saving electronic copies of government records under the misleading file names “chocolate cake recipe” and “bundt cake recipe” before electronically transmitting those records to her personal email accounts. The case is being jointly investigated by the FBI and the DOJ Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christie S. Utt from the Northern District of Florida was assigned as a special prosecutor to avoid conflicts of interest. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christie S. Utt from the Northern District of Florida was assigned as the special prosecutor to handle the case. Lineberger’s defense attorney has not publicly commented. Think about this one for a moment. President Trump was dragged through years of classified documents lawfare by the same DOJ apparatus that employed Carmen Lineberger. Jack Smith’s team built an entire prosecution around the idea that mishandling sensitive government materials was a grave national security threat. And now a former DOJ prosecutor from the very same Southern District of Florida stands accused of stealing sealed records from that investigation, renaming them after baked goods, and shipping them to her personal Gmail. She is innocent until proven guilty, and she has entered a not-guilty plea. The irony is hard to miss: a former DOJ prosecutor now stands accused of mishandling records tied to the same Jack Smith operation used against President Trump. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

President Trump signed an executive order this week that takes direct aim at the financial infrastructure illegal aliens have used to embed themselves in American life. The order, titled “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System,” tells Treasury, the CFPB, and federal banking regulators to confront the fraud, credit, and national-security risks created when the financial system is used by people without legal work authorization. Trump signs executive order to stop banks from extending credit to illegal aliens, cites security https://t.co/AkyMq00uy3 — Just the News (@JustTheNews) May 20, 2026 It is a straightforward concept that most Americans probably assumed was already baked into the system. If someone is not authorized to work in the United States, banks and regulators should not pretend that person carries the same credit and compliance profile as an American citizen or lawful resident. The White House explained the order this way in its official fact sheet: President Trump signed the executive order to protect America’s financial system from illicit activity, strengthen customer identification requirements for financial institutions, and address the credit risks tied to extending financial services to non-work authorized illegal aliens. The order directs Treasury to issue a formal advisory within 60 days identifying red flags and suspicious activity patterns tied to payroll tax evasion, hidden account ownership, off-the-books wage payments, structuring schemes, labor trafficking, and the use of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers to open accounts or obtain credit without verified legal presence. It also directs Treasury and federal financial regulators to look at stronger Bank Secrecy Act due-diligence and customer-identification rules. The CFPB is directed to consider clarifying that potential deportation and loss of wages may affect a borrower’s ability to repay a loan. The logic behind the order is as much about immigration enforcement as it is about financial security. When illegal aliens can obtain credit cards, finance vehicles, secure mortgages, and use financial services with weak identity checks, they build a parallel financial life that makes self-deportation less likely and removal harder to enforce. Just the News highlighted the security side of the order and the criminal networks the White House says are exploiting weak financial controls: The order cites national-security and public-safety concerns tied to illicit cross-border financial activity. It points to low-dollar cross-border transfers that can be used for terrorist financing, narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, and other illegal activity. The order also points to financial-trend analyses that uncovered hubs of deadly fentanyl-related financial activity in the United States connected to Mexico-based cartels. It cites an analysis of Chinese money-laundering networks that identified foreign passport holders using U.S.-based accounts to facilitate the laundering of more than $312 billion for criminal organizations. On the credit side, the administration argues that extending mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, and other consumer credit to removable or non-work-authorized borrowers creates a structural ability-to-repay problem. Employers who violate immigration law can also underreport wages, use mismatched or invalid taxpayer IDs, and distort the income data that lenders rely on when underwriting loans. One important caveat: industry groups are not describing the order as a universal citizenship check for every account. America’s Credit Unions said the order directs NCUA and other federal financial regulators to address undocumented immigrants’ interactions with financial institutions, but added that it “does not require universal citizenship collection on existing or new accounts.” Yesterday, @POTUS signed an Executive Order restoring integrity to our financial system by kicking out illegals. Expect more self-deportations to follow!https://t.co/WbQnmVcJRL — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 20, 2026 The White House framed the order as part of a broader strategy to remove the magnets that draw illegal immigration in the first place. If you cannot work legally and cannot use weak financial rules to borrow and build roots here anyway, the incentive to cross the border illegally drops significantly. Critics will inevitably call this heavy-handed, but the principle is elementary. American financial institutions should not be turned into infrastructure for illegal immigration, labor trafficking, tax evasion, or cartel-linked money movement. President Trump is closing a loophole that should never have existed in the first place. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

President Trump just took the immigration fight somewhere the cartels and their enablers never wanted it to go: the money. On Tuesday, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System,” directing the Treasury Department, federal financial regulators, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to crack down on the financial infrastructure that makes illegal immigration profitable. The targets include money laundering, cartel cash flows, payroll tax evasion, ITIN abuse, off-the-books wage schemes, and reckless lending to illegal aliens who may be deported or lose their income. Yesterday, @POTUS signed an Executive Order restoring integrity to our financial system by kicking out illegals. Expect more self-deportations to follow!https://t.co/WbQnmVcJRL — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 20, 2026 The executive order lays out the problem in blunt terms. The White House order laid out the national-security and credit-risk rationale. America’s financial institutions serve a critical role in safeguarding the American people against financial fraud and abuse. My Administration will not tolerate national security and public safety risks caused by illicit cross-border financial activity, nor will it permit risks to our financial system posed by the extension of credit or financial services to the inadmissible and removable alien population. Low-dollar cross-border funds transfers have been used to facilitate or commit terrorist financing, narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, and other illegal activity. Financial trend analyses have uncovered hubs of deadly fentanyl-related financial activity in the United States related to Mexico-based cartels. A recent analysis of Chinese money laundering networks identified how foreign passport holders have used United States-based accounts to facilitate the laundering of over $312 billion for criminal organizations, with human trafficking highlighted among the activities associated with the transfers. Banks and other financial institutions should also be attentive to the credit risks posed by the extension of mortgage and auto loans, credit cards, and other consumer credit to the inadmissible and removable alien population. Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury shall issue a formal Advisory to financial institutions regarding the risks associated with the exploitation of the United States financial system by non-work authorized populations and their employers. Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury shall propose changes to Bank Secrecy Act regulations to strengthen risk-based customer due diligence requirements for covered financial institutions. $312 billion laundered through U.S. accounts by Chinese criminal networks alone. The order directs Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to issue a formal advisory to financial institutions within 60 days, identifying red flags tied to illegal alien financial activity and the employers who enable it. Those red flags include payroll tax evasion, nominee accounts, shell companies, money-services businesses, third-party payment processors, peer-to-peer platforms, structuring and micro-structuring schemes, labor-trafficking typologies, and the use of ITINs to open accounts or obtain credit without verified lawful immigration status. Within 90 days, Treasury must also propose changes to Bank Secrecy Act regulations to strengthen customer due diligence requirements across the board. And the CFPB is directed to consider clarifying that potential deportation and loss of wages can affect a borrower’s ability to repay under existing lending standards. The White House fact sheet tied the order directly to costs paid by law-abiding Americans. Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to protect America’s financial system from illicit activity, strengthen customer identification requirements for financial institutions, and address the credit risks posed by extending financial services to non-work authorized illegal aliens. The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue a formal advisory to financial institutions identifying red flags and suspicious activity patterns tied to payroll tax evasion, concealment of true account ownership, off-the-books wage payments and structuring schemes, labor trafficking, and the use of individual taxpayer identification numbers to open accounts or obtain credit without verified legal presence. The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with Federal financial regulators, to propose changes to Bank Secrecy Act regulations to strengthen customer due diligence requirements and the authority to obtain additional information when warranted. The Order directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to consider modifying regulations to clarify that potential deportation and loss of wages are factors that could affect a borrower’s ability to repay a loan under ability-to-repay standards. Gaps in customer identification practices have allowed terrorists, drug traffickers, money launderers, and other criminal networks to exploit U.S. financial institutions to move illicit funds and evade law enforcement. Extending mortgages, credit cards, and auto loans to illegal aliens who face potential removal or loss of wages creates structural credit risks that threaten the safety and soundness of the national banking system. When banks are forced to absorb these elevated credit risks, the costs are passed on to American consumers in the form of higher fees and interest rates. Restoring sound underwriting standards puts money back in the pockets of law-abiding Americans. That last line is the one every American taxpayer should read twice. You have been subsidizing the financial risks created by illegal immigration through higher bank fees and interest rates. Yesterday, @POTUS @realDonaldTrump signed the Executive Order, Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System. This bold America First move slams the door on money laundering, terrorist financing, and cartel cash — while ending reckless lending to illegal aliens.… pic.twitter.com/lm2cId8fbj — Katie Zacharia (@KatieZacharia) May 20, 2026 The order works through regulatory guidance and proposed rule changes rather than an immediate mandate that every bank collect citizenship documents from all customers. The banking industry had lobbied hard against that kind of blanket requirement. The Associated Press confirmed the order and added banking-industry context. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that requires banks to take a closer look at the citizenship of their customers, a new measure in his administration’s push to clamp down on people living in the country illegally. The order directs bank regulators and government departments to look for signs that people without legal status are opening accounts or obtaining loans or credit cards. The order is less aggressive than banks had expected, as earlier reports suggested the White House was drafting an order that would make collecting customers’ citizenship information mandatory. In the order, the White House framed the decision around credit risks if one of their customers were deported and any loans could no longer be repaid. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month that “there should be stricter rules” to open bank accounts. “Why can the unknown foreign nationals come and open a bank account?” Bessent said. Claiming bank executives were supposed to “know your customer,” he asked, “So how do you know your customer if you don’t know if they have legal or illegal status, whether a U.S. citizen or green card holder?” The banking industry had been lobbying for months to stop a mandatory-citizenship-status order, arguing it would be expensive and require vast amounts of paperwork. It is a fair question, and now it has the force of an executive order behind it. The strategy here is clear: make illegal immigration harder to finance and harder to hide. When cartel cash gets flagged, when off-the-books payrolls get scrutinized, when reckless lending to people who may be removed from the country gets treated as an actual credit risk, the entire economic engine that sustains illegal immigration starts to break down. Follow the money has always been the most effective enforcement tool in existence. President Trump just aimed it squarely at the border crisis. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

Scott Presler, the grassroots conservative organizer who became one of the most recognized names in Republican voter registration, has won his first election. Presler was elected to the Republican State Committee representing Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in Tuesday’s primary. The man who spent years registering voters and building out early-vote operations across battleground states now has a formal seat inside Pennsylvania’s GOP machinery. Yes, I was elected to the State Committee for Beaver County, Pennsylvania. This is the first time I’ve run for office. I promise to bring up agenda items to voters BEFORE the State Committee votes on issues I promise to do polls & speak with voters in Beaver County… — ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) May 20, 2026 Presler confirmed the news on X, calling it the first time he has ever run for office. According to Beaver County’s official May 2026 Summary Report, Presler received 7,853 votes in the REP STATE COMMITTEE race, finishing alongside running mate Amy Demboski, who led the field with 8,219 votes. The official Beaver County report shows the race details in the county’s own numbers: The May 2026 Summary Report lists the contest as REP STATE COMMITTEE, with 36,845 total votes recorded across the field. Amy Demboski finished with 8,219 votes, or 22.31%, while Scott Presler finished with 7,853 votes, or 21.31%. The same county table lists Paula Barry at 3,670 votes, Steve Aichele at 3,364 votes, and Raymond Santillo at 3,294 votes, placing Demboski and Presler at the top of the official Beaver County results. The county result matters because it anchors the story in the actual election record, not just the online celebration around Presler’s win in Pennsylvania. In other words, the headline here is not just that Presler announced a victory. Beaver County’s own posted election summary shows the vote totals that put him into the Republican State Committee race’s winning group. The county’s published numbers also show why the story moved quickly among Republican activists: Presler’s win was backed by a clear official vote count in one of Pennsylvania’s closely watched western counties. Both cleared 7,000 votes and secured their seats. Trending Politics added context on how the win landed inside the conservative movement: Presler is the president of Early Vote Action and has spent years building a national profile through Republican voter registration, early-vote work, and on-the-ground organizing in Pennsylvania and other battleground states. His win Tuesday gives him a formal role inside the Pennsylvania GOP structure after years of pushing Republicans to compete harder before Election Day. The race paired Presler with Amy Demboski, who also won a Republican State Committee seat in Beaver County. Together, they finished first and second in the contest, with both clearing the 7,000-vote mark in a multi-candidate field. That is why conservatives online treated the result as more than a small local committee race. Presler has been one of the loudest voices telling Republicans to register voters, bank votes early, and organize at the county level. Now he has a seat at the table in a critical Pennsylvania county. The seat sits inside the Republican Party, where committee members help shape the machinery, priorities, and ground game of the state GOP. For a grassroots organizer focused on ballots, precincts, turnout, and party mechanics, that is exactly the kind of post that matters. Presler said he plans to bring agenda items directly to Beaver County voters before state committee votes, polling and speaking with constituents so the seat actually represents them. Thank you to Beaver County, Pennsylvania, for placing your trust in me. I take this role very seriously & will fulfill every single campaign promise I made going into the election. Look forward to representing your voices on the State Committee. pic.twitter.com/1BwzQdgtSF — ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) May 20, 2026 He thanked Beaver County for placing their trust in him and said he takes the role seriously. Presler became a major conservative figure through his voter-registration drives and early-vote organizing in Pennsylvania and other swing states. He built a ground-level operation that focused on the kind of blocking and tackling that wins elections before Election Day even arrives. Now the guy who built the machine from the outside has a vote on the inside. That is how you change a state party from within. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

Aaron Rodgers is calling it. The four-time NFL MVP confirmed on Wednesday that the 2026 season will be his last, making the announcement while speaking with reporters in Pittsburgh. Asked whether he believed this could be his final year, Rodgers gave a short answer that ended two decades of speculation: “This is it, yep.” Aaron Rodgers on his final season in the NFL: "Aaron do you believe this could be your last year or do you think about that right now?" "Yes." "As in your last year?" "This is it, yep." pic.twitter.com/vFu4QworwA — Ashley Liotus (@AshleyLiotus) May 20, 2026 Rodgers, now 42, is returning to the Steelers for a second season in Pittsburgh after signing with the team ahead of the 2025 campaign. The announcement means the 2026 season will be his 22nd in the NFL, a remarkable run for a quarterback who was famously drafted 24th overall by the Green Bay Packers in 2005 and spent years waiting behind Brett Favre. AP reported the Pittsburgh scene this way after Rodgers made the announcement: Rodgers took his time before deciding whether to come back for a 22nd season, but he did not leave much suspense about whether there would be a 23rd. When the four-time MVP was asked Wednesday if this would be his final year, he said, “This is it.” The 42-year-old did not offer a long explanation for the decision, perhaps because none was needed. He had wondered whether his Pittsburgh run, and maybe his NFL career, was over after the Steelers’ playoff loss in January and the coaching change that followed. That changed after Pittsburgh hired Mike McCarthy, Rodgers’ former coach in Green Bay. Rodgers said he may have had a small role in pushing the Steelers to talk with McCarthy, and now the two are reunited for one final season. The setup gives Rodgers one more run with a coach who already knows him, a franchise that expects to compete, and a clear endpoint. After years of will-he-or-won’t-he retirement drama, the quarterback finally put a date on it. For Steelers fans, that turns every week of the 2026 season into part of a countdown. For the rest of the league, it means one of the most debated quarterbacks of the modern era has finally named his exit. He won Super Bowl XLV with Green Bay following the 2010 season and earned MVP honors four times, but a second ring has eluded him throughout a career filled with individual brilliance and postseason heartbreak. The Steelers confirmed the contract side of the comeback before Rodgers revealed the retirement timetable: Pittsburgh announced that Rodgers signed a one-year contract to return for the 2026 season. The team noted that he originally joined the Steelers as an unrestricted free agent in 2025 and is now back for a second year in black and gold. The move keeps Rodgers in Pittsburgh with McCarthy, the coach who helped guide him through the prime of his Green Bay career. It also gives the Steelers a veteran quarterback for what now becomes a true final push rather than another year of offseason guessing. NFL Network also reported that the deal sends Rodgers into his 22nd NFL season. That makes this less of an open-ended comeback and more of a farewell tour with one last chance to chase a second championship. Rodgers’ return also ends the annual quarterback uncertainty in Pittsburgh, at least for now. The Steelers know who their starter is, and everyone else now knows this is the final lap. "This is it." Aaron Rodgers says he will retire after the 2026 season. pic.twitter.com/mjPADJdRLY — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 20, 2026 His journey from Green Bay to the New York Jets to Pittsburgh has been one of the stranger career arcs in NFL history. The Jets tenure took a brutal turn in 2023 when a torn Achilles ended his season just minutes into his debut, a moment that looked like it might be the final chapter. Instead, Rodgers kept going, eventually landing in Pittsburgh for one more chapter with a franchise built around defense, toughness, and January expectations. As The Gateway Pundit noted, Rodgers has never been shy about charting his own path, whether it’s challenging NFL groupthink, speaking his mind on topics well beyond football, or choosing when and where to play on his own terms. Retiring on his own schedule, in a Steelers uniform, fits the pattern perfectly. Love him or not, Aaron Rodgers played the game at a level very few human beings ever have. One more season, then the Hall of Fame clock starts ticking. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.