One of Donald Trump's top justice officials has claimed convicted teen sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a cushy prison "to keep her mouth shut".
The disgraced British socialite was transferred last month from a tough Florida lock-up to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas - America's most relaxed women's jail. The move came just days after Maxwell, serving 20 years for recruiting teenage girls for billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was interviewed by Trump's deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche.
Now, Joseph Schnitt, an Acting Deputy Chief in the Department of Justice, has been exposed after bragging on a date about why he thinks Maxwell is suddenly enjoying easier conditions behind bars.
Not realising his companion was working for America's O'Keefe Media Group, he told her the decision broke Bureau of Prisons policy because Maxwell, a friend of Prince Andrew, was a convicted sex offender. He then claimed: "Which means they're offering her something to keep her mouth shut."
During her marathon two-day grilling with Blanche, Maxwell appeared to go out of her way to protect the US leader. "The president was never inappropriate with anybody," she said, adding, "In the times I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects."
Maxwell - daughter of crooked tycoon Robert Maxwell - insisted Trump and Epstein were only "friendly in social settings" and claimed, "I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting."
For decades, Trump, Epstein and Maxwell mixed socially. But the Republican president has since played down his ties with the late sex offender. He once said of his pal: "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
Schnitt went even further during his covertly filmed chat, lifting the lid on how Trump's Department of Justice (DoJ) allegedly planned to handle the explosive Epstein files, claiming they would redact all Republican names and only include rival Democrats.
He claimed: "They're going to redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files, and have a very slanted version of it come out." Republican Trump, who is named in the files, this week dismissed the mounting scandal by branding survivors' accounts of abuse a "Democratic hoax".
But Schnitt's comments have forced US Attorney General Pam Bondi's department into frantic damage control. In the sting, Schnitt even claimed there was fierce infighting at the top of the justice system. He said FBI deputy director Dan Bongino was battling Bondi over the handling of the files.
He said: "Second-in-command [Dan 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."
The revelations triggered a bizarre series of responses from the DoJ. A leaked internal message purportedly from Schnitt admitted he had been duped in a classic "honeypot" sting.
"I met a woman named Skylar on Hinge, a dating app, in July 2025, her profile is no longer findable," he wrote. "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 date. Had I a clue, the first date would have immediately ended and there would never have been a second one."
Schnitt insisted: "The comments I've made were my own personal comments on what I've learned in the media and not from anything I've done at or via work." The DoJ's spokesperson later doubled down on social media, blasting the recording as worthless.
They said: "The comments in the video have absolutely zero bearing on reality and reflect a total lack of knowledge of the DOJ's review process."
Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls. Maxwell was later convicted of conspiracy and trafficking charges.
Trump, who once promised to release every government-held document on Epstein, reneged once in power. Survivors and campaigners accuse him of leading a cover-up.
This week, House Republicans attempted to draw a line under the scandal by dumping 33,000 pages of DoJ files. But much of it - surveillance videos, flight logs, emails and court filings - had long been public. Critics called it another smokescreen.