AP Sources: Epstein Jail Guards Had Been Offered Plea Deal

Federal prosecutors offered a plea deal to two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his death, but the officers have declined the offer, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.The existence of the plea offer signals the Justice Department is considering criminal charges in connection with the wealthy financier’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August. The city’s medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.

The guards on Epstein’s unit are suspected of failing to check on him every half hour, as required, and of fabricating log entries to show they had. As part of the proposed plea deal, prosecutors wanted the guards to admit they falsified the prison records, according to the people familiar with the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to publicly discuss the investigation.

Supreme Court rejects South Carolina’s bid to enforce transgender bathroom ban

Breaking: They’ve Got the Suspected Shooter – FBI Dir. Kash Patel Makes Announcement to the Nation

Jury seated in trial of man accused of Trump assassination attempt

Leading DC Democrats blast markup of proposed legislation as crime emergency nears expiration

Trump Should Award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom Before the Week Is Out

House floor erupts in chaos after moment of silence for Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk dead after being shot at Utah Valley University event

Elon Musk pledges $1M to murals honoring Ukrainian refugee murdered in North Carolina

Decarlos Brown Jr. Speaks Out from Jail, Refuses to Accept Responsibility for Murder of Iryna Zarutska

Secret Service Under Fire After Radical Protesters Crash Private Dinner and Get Within Feet of Trump

Trump responds to Charlie Kirk shooting: ‘We must all pray’

Dems, GOP lawmakers join forces to condemn political violence after Charlie Kirk shot

Charlie Kirk shot at Utah event, hospitalized

Schumer to force Epstein files vote in Senate with NDAA amendment

Intercom CEO calls for ‘public execution’ of man accused of stabbing Ukrainian refugee

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan had no comment on the plea offer. Both guards were working overtime because of staffing shortages. They have been placed on administrative leave while the FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general investigate the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death. The 66-year-old had been awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing teenage girls. Epstein was placed on suicide watch after he was found on his cell floor July 23 with bruises on his neck. Multiple people familiar with operations at the jail have said Epstein was then taken off suicide watch about a week before his death, meaning he was less closely monitored but still supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes.

Epstein’s death exposed mounting evidence that the chronically understaffed Metropolitan Correctional Center may have bungled its responsibility to keep him alive. Guards often work overtime day after day, and other employees are pressed into service as correctional officers. Falsification of records has been a problem throughout the federal prison system. Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who was named director of the Bureau of Prisons after Epstein’s death, disclosed in a Nov. 4 internal memo that a review of operations across the agency found some staff members failed to perform required rounds and inmate counts but logged that they had done so anyway. “Falsification of information in government systems and documents is also a violation of policy, and may be subject to criminal prosecution as well,” Hawk Sawyer wrote in the memo to top prison officials, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.