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.

American skydivers reclaim world record from Libya with massive flag jump on Pearl Harbor Day

Twin Blue-State Punks Meet SWAT Justice After Threatening Medieval Torture, Then Murder of DHS Asst. Dir. Tricia McLaughlin

Plane crash-lands on top of Toyota on Florida freeway following engine trouble

McDonald’s Pulls Unsettling Christmas Commercial After it Sparks Massive Backlash

Federal appeals court lets Pentagon reinstate transgender service ban, says judge overstepped military leaders

Expert reveals key factor that led to massive Minnesota fraud scheme

ABC Signs Jimmy Kimmel to a New Deal Months After Affiliate Revolt

Gene Simmons gives Alex Padilla’s son music career advice: ‘Have a fall back position’

Watch: David Spade Roasts Mall That Refused to Say ‘Christmas,’ Calls Out Rampant Christian Persecution

European talks reshape Ukraine’s peace plan as Zelenskyy refuses territorial concessions

Trump’s approval climbs as Republicans rally behind president’s affordability agenda: poll

Luigi Mangione said ‘all these people here for a mass murder, why?’ at arraignment: police officer

New Jersey twins arrested for threatening to kill DHS spokeswoman and ICE officers

DOJ fights major obstacle to bring new case against Comey

Gene Simmons says musician royalty act is about protecting the next Elvis Presley

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.