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.

CEO of California-Based In-N-Out Burger Teases Major Expansion East

Masked Invaders Stage Terrifying Armed Attack on CEO’s Family Home: Both Daughters Shot, Wife Struck with Hammer

Carney aims for June deal with EU to define ‘associate member’ status in bid to undercut US influence

EXCLUSIVE: ICE captures illegal alien at center of NYC manhunt after sanctuary city release

DOJ insists it just wants Alaska ballots preserved and isn’t seeking to change votes

BREAKING: Bessent and FBI Director Kash Patel Announce Multimillion-Dollar Fraud Arrests in Sweeping Minnesota Crackdown

Heroic Crack Shot Local Cop Sniper Who Saved Trump’s Life ‘Erased’ from News by Embarrassed Feds: Family

‘Biscuit’ the dog is latest dead felon to get their voting rights back from Spanberger, confused owner says

Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: A rare reversal, a Christian battle and a reality check

Appeals court rejects DOJ effort to set aside 20,000 mail-in ballots, teeing up Supreme Court gambit

Polish president scrambles back from overseas trip amid Donald Tusk-led ‘coup d’état’ at police-swarmed Constitutional Tribunal

NYT Points to ‘Murky’ Detail in ‘Ilhan Omar’ Brother-Marriage Fraud Probe: The Man Who Married Her

Judge grills Comey’s lawyers over effort to dismiss new charges

Treasury flags $8B in suspicious foreign-directed transfers through US money services firms

Liberal court delivers immigration win for Trump as judge warns of ‘floodgates’ if law firm succeeded

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.