Explosive Ghislaine Maxwell claims caught on camera during dating app honeypot trap as White House forced into urgent damage control

A senior Department of Justice official told an undercover journalist that the government actively worked to keep Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘mouth shut’. 

Joseph Schnitt, Acting Deputy Chief, was caught on camera making the claims to a woman he met on Hinge, who actually works for The O’Keefe Media Group.

In a video shared by the organization on Thursday, Schnitt tells the woman that Jeffrey Epstein’s madam, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse, was moved to a minimum security prison as part of a deal. 

He said: ‘[Maxwell] got transferred to a minimum security prison which is against BOP [Bureau of Prisons] policy because she’s a convicted sex offender and they’re not supposed to get minimum security prisons, which is an interesting detail because she’s getting a benefit, which means they’re [DOJ] offering her something to keep her mouth shut.’ 

Schnitt also told the reporter that the files relating to the pedophile financier would be heavily redacted to remove all mention of Republicans and known conservatives.

He said: ‘They’ll redact every Republican or conservatives person in those files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files.

‘[They’ll] have a very slanted version of it come out, where it’s ‘Look at what’s going on’, without really seeing any of their bad behavior.’

Schnitt added that there is ‘thousands and thousands of pages of files’ relating to Epstein. 

In a statement, Schnitt said he had met the reporter on Hinge in July of this year and that she had identified herself as an au pair by the name of Skylar.

He said: ‘I met a woman named Skylar on Hinge, a dating app, in July 2025, her profile is no longer findable. 

We had two dates (August 4 and August 16). She claimed to be an au pair in Georgetown. She gave no clues that she was a reporter or recording our dates. 

‘Had I a clue, the first date would have ended immediately and there never would have been a second one.

‘My profile indicated I did ‘Government’ work but did not specify for which agency. I never discussed what I do at DOJ.

‘The comments I made were my own personal comments on what l’ve learned in the media and not from anything l’ve done at or learned via work. 

‘I have no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Maxwell other than what is reported in the news. I also never divulged anything about what I do at work. 

‘I recall that she asked if I had any knowledge about Maxwell and I specifically said I only know what’s been reported in the media.’

In response the DOJ said: ‘The comments in this video have absolutely zero bearing with reality and reflect a total lack of knowledge of the DOJ’s review process. 

‘The DOJ is committed to transparency and is in compliance with the House Oversight Committee’s request for documents.’ 

As well as the the Epstein comments, Schnitt has spoke about the ‘internal conflict’ between Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. 

He added: ‘Second-in-command [Bongino] at the FBI has been causing problems, because he’s like, “No, these [Epstein Files] have to be released”.

‘Bondi wants whatever Trump wants. Internally there’s a lot of conflict.’

It is the latest in a long saga involving the release of files relating to the pedophile financier who was found dead in a New York City jail cell in 2019. 

At the time of Epstein’s death, which was ruled a suicide, he had pleaded not guilty to the charges held against him.

His suicide fueled public speculation that he was assassinated as part of a cover-up to protect other high-profile individuals who were potentially complicit in his crimes.

From that, a theory that the well-connected financier maintained a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked emerged.

Bondi made promises that raised the expectations of conservatives, maintaining this year that the list ‘was on her desk’.

To some fanfare, right-wing influencers were welcomed to the White House in February and provided with binders marked ‘The Epstein Files: Phase 1’. 

It later emerged that the information contained in the dossiers handed over was already publicly available. 

An all out MAGA civil war has ensued after the Department of Justice said in a memo in July that, despite fueling theories for years, there is no list. 

Senior officials in the administration also claimed that Bondi had told Trump back in May that his name was found in the Epstein documents. 

Maxwell sat down with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July to discuss what she knew about the Epstein case. 

The records of those conversations were then subsequently released and provided no incriminating information on high-profile individuals including Donald Trump.

She also denied the existence of a so-called ‘client list’ and insisted Microsoft founder Bill Clinton had never visited Epstein’s infamous ‘pedophile island’. 

On Friday morning, President Trump took to his Truth Social and claimed the Epstein files was all a hoax by the Democratic party. 

In a lengthy statement, he said:  The now dying Epstein case was only brought back to life by the Radical Left Democrats because they are doing so poorly.

‘The Dems don’t care about the victims, as proven by the fact that they never did before. 

‘This is merely another Democrat HOAX, just like Russia, Russia, Russia, and all of the others, in order to deflect and distract from the great success of a Republican President, and the record setting failure of the previous Administration, and the Democrat Party. 

‘The Department of Justice has done its job, they have given everything requested of them. It’s time to end the Democrat Epstein Hoax, and give the Republicans credit for the great, even legendary, job that they are doing.’