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.

Tim Walz Fumes About ‘Accountability’ in Shooting Death of Renee Good – He Should Start by Looking in a Mirror

Watch: Top Chicago Cop Blasts Dem, Media Narrative on Renee Good Shooting, Comes to Defense of ICE Agents Being Attacked with Cars

Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Ohio dentist murders, Kohberger sister’s warning, ‘Torso Killer’ confession

Trump pauses oil exec summit to peek at White House ballroom’s progress

Johnson meets with Muslim man who confronted, disarmed Bondi Beach attacker

WATCH: Bodycam for Ohio dentist murders shows police went to wrong home before couple was found dead

Walz Rages That ICE Won’t Share Shooting Evidence With Sanctuary City Minneapolis – Which Outright Refuses to Cooperate With ICE

House Republicans defend ICE agent in fatal shooting, say use of force was justified

California leads multistate lawsuit against Trump over child care funding freeze

Obama Presidential Center job listings push ‘anti-racism’ pledge ahead of opening

Breaking Footage: US Forces Execute Lightning-Quick Seizure of Fully-Loaded Venezuelan Oil Tanker

Trump Admin Considers Sending Large Payments to Every Greenland Resident in Bid to Acquire the Island: Report

First Hilton, Then Marriot, Now McDonald’s: Companies Rush to Embrace ICE as Conservative Pressure Campaign Crushes Woke Workers

‘Tip of the iceberg’: Senate Republicans press Gov Walz over Minnesota fraud scandal

Democratic socialist Mamdani ally mounts bid for US House of Representatives

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.