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.

Groundhog Day and Friday the 13th

Planned Parenthood drops lawsuit challenging Trump administration’s Medicaid cuts

San Francisco uncovers nine secret drug and gambling dens disguised as convenience stores

Dozens of House Republicans Demand Mitch McConnell ‘Stop Stalling the SAVE Act’

Jeffries says GOP ‘done eff’d up in Texas,’ vows they won’t win five seats: ‘They can’t ignore it’

Chuck Schumer Lambasted After Comparing the SAVE Act to Jim Crow

Trump administration blocked from ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians

BREAKING: Under Threat of Criminal Contempt, Bill and Hillary Clinton Have Agreed to Testify in House’s Jeffrey Epstein Probe

Donations surge for fallen NY officer and new mom following tragic death at hands of DWI suspect

Clinton Judge Releases Boy, 5, and His Father from ICE Detention, Makes Mistake So Bad on Order This May Be the First Time It’s Ever Recorded

Clintons agree to testify after House threatens contempt in Jeffrey Epstein probe

LAPD Chief Refuses to Enforce Gavin Newsom’s Crackdown on ICE Agents: ‘It Doesn’t Make Any Sense’

House GOP majority shrinks to just one vote as Johnson swears in new House Democrat

Trump and India PM Modi Reach Historic Trade Agreement, Includes Ending Importation of Russian Oil

Grammys blasted as ‘anti-China political tool’ after Dalai Lama wins audiobook award

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.