First Amendment
DOJ official who thought he was on Hinge date discusses Epstein files, gets fired, suit says
The U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. (Image from Shutterstock)
A former Department of Justice official said in a lawsuit his First Amendment rights were violated when he was fired for comments that he made about the Epstein files while on Hinge dates with a woman who apparently recorded him without his knowledge.
In the recording posted online, Joseph H. Schnitt III said there are “thousands and thousands” of pages of Epstein files, and the DOJ would redact the names of all conservative or Republican persons but leave the names of liberal Democrats.
He also said the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell, multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein’s friend, to a minimum-security prison was against Bureau of Prisons policy because she is a convicted sex offender.
“They’re offering her something to keep her mouth shut,” Schnitt said in the video posted by conservative activist James O’Keefe and the O’Keefe Media Group.
“Schnitt only talked about the Epstein case with ‘Skylar’ because it was a topic being discussed nationally,” according to the Nov. 24 suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “Had he possessed any information about the topic through his official duties, he never would have said anything.”
Politico and Law360 have coverage of the suit.
Schnitt had managed the federal witness security program as part of his duties as acting deputy chief of the Special Operations Unit in the DOJ’s Criminal Division when he was “suddenly, arbitrarily and unlawfully fired” on Sept. 5, the suit said. He had worked at the DOJ for “more than 23 years.”
Schnitt’s “personal conversation during nonduty hours is quintessential protected speech on a matter of public concern,” the suit said. “The defendants have retaliated against Mr. Schnitt because of that speech and unlawfully removed him from federal service.”
Schnitt thought the woman he was meeting through Hinge was “Skylar.” She had a lot of questions about efforts to release the Epstein files and Maxwell’s prison transfer after an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Schnitt commented but told her at some point on two dates that he had no special knowledge of the case, and anything that he knew was conjecture or opinion based on news reports, the suit said.
He later learned that the the dates were “a complete setup,” and the woman was apparently working as an undercover operative for O’Keefe, the suit said.
The DOJ published on X, formerly Twitter, Schnitt’s explanation to his supervisor without his permission, according to the suit.
The suit alleges retaliation for protected speech in violation of the First Amendment, violation of due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and violation of the Privacy Act.
Schnitt is seeking reinstatement and a declaratory judgment that his constitutional and statutory rights have been violated.
Schnitt is represented by whistleblower lawyer Mark Zaid.
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