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.

‘Tsunami of Republican Money’ Could Turn Midterms Upside Down, Says Top Democrat

NY Dem Congressional Candidate Wants Cornell 7’s ‘Severed Heads on Pikes,’ Ignores That There’s Been No Trial

99,000 arrested at Mexican border in Trump’s first year versus two million in Biden’s year one

Schumer warns of Republican advantage that could change the battle for Senate control

Democrats have ‘dirty hands’ over complaints about Omar raid weeks before election, ex-prosecutor says

Trump announces massive oil, gas and mineral exploration plans in Greenland, touts national security benefits

Trump administration slashes time refugees have to challenge loss of legal status

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he won’t fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch despite socialist pressure

Trump signs pardons for Alaska diesel mechanics onstage during rally touting major energy deals

Trump Energy Department issues emergency order to prevent blackouts across 13 states amid unusual October heat

Florida executes inmate who killed cellmate because he wanted death penalty

Great Wolf Lodge horror as mom accused of killing husband and toddler inside hotel room

Campaign Blunder Causes Ad for Key Senate Race to Air in the Wrong State on the Opposite End of the Country

Attorney says fatal Six Flags roller coaster accident could raise broader safety questions as 9 rides close

Breaking: DOJ Subpoenas Ilhan Omar’s Sister, Other Family Over Evidence of Fraudulent Immigration Paperwork

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.