Wearing Aviator sunglasses, small hoop earrings, and a tight black T-shirt, the man discussing the Epstein files might have been mistaken for a high-ranking government operative.

‘I work for the Department of Justice,’ he quietly stated. ‘I’ve been there for about 23 years. I’m an analyst, and next week I’ll start serving as the acting deputy chief of our division for a few months.’

‘I work closely with, like, all the federal law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Attorneys offices, the prosecutors and stuff.’

He proceeded to talk about the internal disputes within the Department of Justice and FBI, how the Epstein files would be censored to shield prominent Republicans, and how Ghislaine Maxwell had been relocated to a minimum-security facility to ensure she remained silent.

Across the secluded outdoor table the au pair he had met through the Hinge dating app sounded suitably impressed as she snacked on her salad.

In reality, the ‘au pair’ was not seeking a boyfriend, she was an undercover reporter for the O’Keefe Media Group who was secretly filming it all.

When the footage was published on Friday it send shockwaves through Washington DC.

But who was the Department of Justice analyst behind the Aviators?

The Daily Mail can reveal that Joseph Schnitt III, 49, known as Joe, leads a quiet suburban existence.

He lives alone in a modest two-bedroom house in a cul-de-sac in a northern Virginia suburb, 25 miles from the Department of Justice headquarters in the capital.

Schnitt, a registered Republican originally from New York state, bought the 1,500 sq ft property for just over for $250,000 back in 2009, according to public records.

He does not appear to have ever been married. Public records from 2023 show him earning $109,908 as a case analyst.

He reportedly works in the Office of Enforcement Operations (OEO) within the DOJ’s Criminal Division.

The OEO gives advice to other sections of the department on issues including electronic and video surveillance, search warrants, and on ‘questioning, arresting, or charging members of the news media.’

It also oversees the administration of the Federal Witness Security Program.

Schnitt appears to value his privacy and has a very muted social media presence. A LinkedIn profile exists for a Joe Schnitt, ‘analyst at the US DOJ,’ but has never been used to post anything.

On Friday night, hours after news broke that he had been the subject of an elaborate sting, Schnitt returned home in his silver pickup truck, looking somewhat glum.

He was dressed in khaki pants and shirt, and a black baseball cap, and carrying a black backpack and canvas shopping bag.

It was unclear if he had just returned from work at the Department of Justice.

He was less talkative than on the date with the undercover reporter, and did not answer the door bell to the Daily Mail.

It was perhaps unsurprising if he was crestfallen, as superiors at the Department of Justice had just issued a statement eviscerating the sting video.

‘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 Department, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, said. In the video Schnitt had called Bondi ‘just a yes person.’

The statement went on: ‘The DOJ is committed to transparency and is in compliance with the House Oversight Committee’s request for (Epstein files) documents.’

It added: ‘Joseph Schnitt had no role in the department’s internal review of Epstein materials.’ 

In the undercover video Schnitt had been asked by the ‘au pair’ if the Epstein files existed.

He said: ‘Yeah, there’s files, for sure, thousands and thousands of pages of files.’

He added: ‘[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 offering her something to keep her mouth shut.’

The analyst also predicted the files would be heavily redacted to protect Republicans.

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

‘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.’

In addition, Schnitt spoke about the ‘internal conflict’ between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

The analyst said: ‘Second-in-command at the FBI has been causing problems, because he’s like, ‘No, these (Epstein files) have to be released’. Bondi wants whatever Trump wants. She’s just a yes person.’

In his own statement, issued through the Department of Justice, Schnitt denied that he had revealed anything to the ‘au pair’ that had not already been reported in the media.

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.’

Schnitt said his Hinge profile had indicated he did ‘Government’ work but not for which agency.

‘I never discussed what I do at DOJ,’ he said.’ 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 [the au pair] asked if I had any knowledge about Maxwell and I specifically said I only know what’s been reported in the media.’

The episode was the latest in a long saga involving the release of files relating to Epstein, 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 sex trafficking charges.

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 earlier 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 President Trump back in May that his name was found in the Epstein documents.

In 2022, Epstein’s associate Maxwell was jailed for 20 years for charges including sex trafficking

She 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 President Trump.

Maxwell also denied the existence of a so-called ‘client list’ and insisted 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.’

Earlier this week Epstein survivors spoke with lawmakers on Capitol Hill about their abuse during a closed-door meeting.