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.

Border Patrol arrests two illegal aliens convicted of child sex offenses near San Diego in back-to-back busts

Trump opens Hormuz under fire with ‘Project Freedom’ as Iran warns of attacks

Arkansas school director sentenced for being ‘ringleader’ of child fight club

Civil rights groups file lawsuit seeking to block Texas law allowing cops to arrest illegal migrants

Rudy Giuliani’s primary care provider gives update on his condition

Police dog follows his nose to find missing autistic teen screaming for help

Ohio daycare worker convicted of horrific physical abuse of toddlers sentenced to years in prison

Alert: Child Struck by Gunfire as Secret Service Neutralizes Alleged Gunman Near White House

Military-trained fugitive accused of shooting wife eludes manhunt in rural woodlands

Staffer for Dem Sen. Cory Booker Who Brought Gun Into Capitol Without a License Saw Charges Quickly Dropped: DOJ

Video shows Dem candidate dodging Trump violence question as campaign issues response

Florida GOP candidate reveals why ‘amazing’ fundraising haul and key Trump moves suggest midterm ‘optimism’

GOP challenger Joe Kaufman to run in Florida’s 25th district; will face either Moskowitz or Wasserman Schultz

Trump’s troop drawdown jolts Europe as NATO chief says leaders got the ‘message’

NATO Chief Says European Leaders Have Finally ‘Gotten the Message’ from Trump and Are Changing Their Ways

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.