U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a press briefing with U.S. President Donald Trump in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday, June 27, 2025 (Photo by Annabelle Gordon/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images).
A veteran Department of Justice employee who was fired after a secretly recorded video of him criticizing the Trump administration was posted online has sued over the termination, arguing his right to free speech was violated.
Joseph Schnitt, who worked for the DOJ for more than 23 years, was fired in September after footage of him speculating about the "Epstein files" was made public. His 23-page lawsuit filed on Monday asserted that the DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi "retaliated against" him for "quintessential protected speech" and "unlawfully removed him from federal service due solely to the expression" of that speech.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
In July, Schnitt met a woman purportedly named "Skylar" on Hinge, a popular online dating platform. As the weeks went on, they agreed to meet for a date, and on Aug. 4, they sat down together at a restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.
Unbeknownst to Schnitt, the woman was recording their conversation.
During the 60- to 90-minute-long date, "Skylar" asked him questions about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as the government's plans to release files related to the investigation of the convicted child sex offenders. Schnitt's responses suggested that the Trump administration would protect certain people and decline to do the same for others.
"They'll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal Democratic people in those files," the then-DOJ employee said in the video posted online in September by self-proclaimed "Guerrilla Journalist" James O'Keefe. Schnitt also suggested that Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security prison was the DOJ "offering her something to keep her mouth shut."
According to the lawsuit, Schnitt's dating profile did not disclose his occupation, let alone state that he was a DOJ official and acting deputy chief for the Federal Witness Security Program. Rather, under the employment tab, his profile said: "case analyst at government."
However, in the 8-minute video posted by O'Keefe, Schnitt can be heard stating he is a long-tenured official at the DOJ. Schnitt and the woman met for one additional date, but he "steered the conversation" away from Epstein, and no moments from that date are included in the video.
About a month after the first date and hours before the video was posted online, Schnitt received a text message asking if he had any comment about specific quotes taken during a "hidden camera interview with an undercover reporter." As he began to realize what was happening, he went to his supervisor, who encouraged him to email the acting director of the DOJ's Office of Enforcement Operations.
He did so, stating that his comments "were strictly his own personal opinion and only based on what he had learned in the media," not due to "any official information." According to the lawsuit, it was "his understanding and expectation that the e-mail would be for internal use by his leadership only."
That was not the case, as hardly an hour after the video was posted, the DOJ posted Schnitt's explanation on its official X account. The following day, on Sept. 5, he was fired "based on your publicly inappropriate comments that were detrimental to the interests of the Department."
According to Schnitt and his attorney Mark Zaid, this termination was unlawful for several reasons. Primarily, they hold that it violates his constitutionally protected freedom of speech.
"Mr. Schnitt's protected speech did not take place in a Government facility, use Government equipment, or rely upon Government systems or databases. It did not consist of any information Mr. Schnitt learned during the course of his official duties," the lawsuit reads. "His protected speech consisted exclusively of open source, publicly available information reported in the news media, as well as his own personal opinions on matters of public concern."
Schnitt continued by referring to the DOJ's public repurposing of his email explanation, saying, "[t]he Defendants publicly confirmed that Mr. Schnitt had no official knowledge about the case and that his comments were made in his personal capacity only."
The former DOJ worker added that his protected speech was the entire basis for his termination and that the Trump administration "did nothing to determine whether Mr. Schnitt's protected speech had actually caused any kind of disruption or hampered his ability to perform his employment responsibilities."
Schnitt argued he was denied due process, saying "no opportunity was ever provided to Mr. Schnitt to respond" to his termination. He filed an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board — the agency tasked with overseeing federal employee personnel actions — on Nov. 16, but "no actions have yet occurred."
Schnitt maintains that he was the victim of a "complete set-up" by the woman, who the lawsuit identified as Dominique Phillips, a woman previously tied to conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA.
He is asking to be immediately reinstated to his position, for the Trump administration to declare his termination "was in retaliation" for his protected speech, and for him to be awarded back pay.
The "Epstein files" have been a source of controversy for the administration, with the president, Bondi, and other officials taking heat for not releasing all of the documents related to the disgraced financier.
The DOJ had no comment when contacted by Law&Crime.