What DOJ Deputy Chief Joseph Schnitt Said on Camera About the Epstein Files

It’s hard to say what’s more concerning: the fact that an acting deputy chief at the DOJ’s Office of Enforcement Operations allegedly claimed the government would redact every Republican from the Epstein files, or that he later backtracked and said his opinion was based only on what he’d read in the media. And as we all know, you can’t believe everything you hear on the news and read online.

In case you missed it, we’re talking about Joseph Schnitt, an acting deputy chief at a DOJ division who was secretly recorded on camera during what he thought was a date, but was actually a sting set up by The O’Keefe Media Group to get him to talk, per Axios. And boy did he, just enough to further muddy the waters around the Epstein file controversy. Here’s everything Schnitt said and how the DOJ responded to his comments.

During a “date” between Joseph Schnitt, a deputy chief within the DOJ, and a woman he matched with on the Hinge dating app, Schnitt made some pretty shocking claims about the Epstein files. The “date” was reportedly a setup by the O’Keefe Media Group, run by far-right activist James O’Keefe, and was secretly recorded without Schnitt’s knowledge.

In the footage, later shared by O’Keefe on X (formerly Twitter), Schnitt can be heard telling the woman that the government will “redact every Republican or conservative person in those [Epstein] files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files.”

At one point, the woman asks about “that Maxwell person,” referring to Ghislaine Maxwell, the only other individual in the Epstein scandal to face criminal penalties. Schnitt responds, claiming she had been transferred to a minimum-security prison, which he says is “against BOP policy because she’s a convicted sex offender.”

Throughout the conversation, Schnitt sounds pretty confident, and given his DOJ position, it’s easy to see why people might believe him. But after the secret recording surfaced and racked up more than 4 million views on X, Schnitt issued a statement through the DOJ clarifying that he didn’t have any solid evidence to back up his claims. More on his and the DOJ’s statement below.

Shortly after Schnitt’s “date” with the woman went viral, the DOJ shared a screenshot of his statement on X, which appeared to be from the Notes app on his phone. Naturally, that alone drew plenty of criticism. But what stood out most was Schnitt’s claim that “the comments I made were my own personal comments on what I’ve learned in the media and not from anything I’ve done at or learned via work.”

He also clarified that he has “no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Maxwell other than what is reported in the news.”

Schnitt admitted he “never divulged anything about what I do at work,” and when the woman asked him about Maxwell, he told her, “I only know what’s been reported in the media.”

He said he had gone on two dates with the woman, who claimed to be “an au pair in Georgetown,” and gave “no clues that she was a reporter or recording our dates,” otherwise, he said, the first date would have “ended immediately.”

The DOJ later issued a similar statement to O’Keefe, highlighting the same points Schnitt made in his initial statement.