Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing a legal headache from inside her own former ranks, after a longtime Justice Department official fired in the fallout from a “honeypot” sting sued her and the U.S. government for allegedly tossing him out without due process.
In a 23 page complaint filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., former acting deputy chief Joseph Schnitt claims the Justice Department “arbitrarily and unlawfully” removed him over comments he made on what he thought was a private lunch date, not a political ambush.
Schnitt spent more than two decades at DOJ and most recently served as acting deputy chief of the Special Operations Unit, a post that placed him inside some of the department’s most sensitive work. His career imploded in September, when conservative activist James O’Keefe’s media outfit published secretly recorded video of Schnitt chatting about the Jeffrey Epstein files with a woman he met on the dating app Hinge.
The woman, who introduced herself as “Skylar,” was, according to Schnitt’s lawsuit, an undercover operative using a fake identity who pressed him with questions about Epstein during two dates in the D.C. area. Hidden cameras captured him speculating that the department would heavily redact Republican names from Epstein related records while allowing more damaging material about Democrats to surface, along with musings about Ghislaine Maxwell’s prison conditions.
DOJ Deputy Chief Joseph Schnitt was caught on hidden camera saying the government will ‘redact every Republican’ from the Epstein files.
He also revealed that Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison ‘to keep her mouth shut.’ pic.twitter.com/csppcbXMtW
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) November 18, 2025
The Justice Department quickly distanced itself from his remarks, stressing that Schnitt had no role in the department’s internal review of Epstein materials and insisting his comments had no connection to any official position or decision. Bondi’s team leaned into damage control with a public response that included posting a screenshot of an internal email from Schnitt, in which he alerted superiors that he had been secretly recorded.
According to the lawsuit, Bondi fired Schnitt one day after the O’Keefe video was released, citing his “publicly inappropriate comments” as detrimental to the department. Schnitt argues that he was off duty, speaking as a private citizen in what he believed was a confidential conversation about a topic dominating the news, not sharing internal information or official secrets.
His complaint portrays the lunch date as a deliberate setup, and contends that parts of the recording may have violated D.C. rules on surreptitious taping. He is suing under the First and Fifth Amendments, claiming his firing punished protected speech and deprived him of due process. He also says DOJ steered him away from the usual civil service appeals mechanism, then argued that the backlogged Merit Systems Protection Board could not help him.
Schnitt is not suing O’Keefe, instead, he names Bondi in her official capacity along with the United States, accusing DOJ of violating the Privacy Act by publishing his internal email during its public response. He is seeking reinstatement, back pay, damages, and a formal hearing to clear his name.
Behind the legal filings lies a cautionary tale of modern politics, where dating apps and undercover operations have become integral to traditional opposition research. For career civil servants, Schnitt’s case serves as a clear reminder of how quickly an off-the-clock conversation can turn into a viral clip and then a termination letter.
The Justice Department has not commented on the lawsuit.
