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.

Obama Operative Turned Trump Voter Exposes the Anti-Working-Class Bigotry That Destroyed the Democrats

Fox News Stars Mourn the Brutal Murder of a Beloved ‘Fan Who Became a Friend’

El-Sayed ignites firestorm after sharing 9/11 message on social media: ‘Piece of s—‘

Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Lindsay Clancy jurors, Bryan Kohberger’s legal move, Menendez brothers hearing

Firefighter caught on camera ripping pro-Palestinian agitator in Elmo costume near Ground Zero on 9/11

EXCLUSIVE: Pence group knocks Vance plan to pay stay-at-home parents up to $9K per child

Clinton, Bush received multiple warnings on bin Laden hijack plots before 9/11, declassified files show

First use of Alien Terrorist Removal Court sends Afghan woman back after Election Day ISIS plot: DOJ

Nashville Airport Authority Votes Unanimously to Change Name to Honor Dolly Parton

Watch: Convention Crowd Symbolically Anoints JD Vance for 2028 with Chant

Inside Trump’s intimate meeting with nation’s bravest soldiers during whirlwind Texas trip

California woman chased, fatally shot by illegal immigrant DoorDash driver who stalked her for months: DHS

AOC, Mamdani interaction caught on cam at 9/11 memorial sparks online fury

Breaking: Newly Declassified 9/11 Documents Reveal the Repeated Warnings Received by Clinton and Bush

The ‘Jumper’ Victims of 9/11 Deserve to Have Their Stories Heard: And Yet They’ve Been Erased by the Media

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.