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.

US walks out of UN General Assembly as Iranian president decries ‘genocide’ and ‘terrorism’ against Iran

Syrian president bashes Israel for airstrikes during UN speech

Oblivious Politico Makes Humiliating Mistake, Thinks Jewish Wedding Tradition May Be Trump Admin Bribery Scheme

Newsom’s admission that infamous COVID move was ‘insane’ triggers viral fury: ‘We all told you’

Man Who Jumped from Cruise Ship Identified, Was Father of 3 and on 15th Wedding Anniversary Trip with Wife

New Jersey police pull out 3-foot python from woman’s car grille, bodycam video shows

Pro-life leader sounds alarm after doctor gets 6 months for forcing abortion pills on girlfriend

Woke ‘Reacher’ Star Alan Ritchson Sees Second Movie Bomb at Box Office in as Many Months

PA Republicans Sound Alarm on Disease Rule Proposal That Would Allow ‘Health Agencies to Enter Any Home’ Without Warrant

Chinese President Xi set to arrive in DC for high-stakes Trump summit and more top headlines

Ex-Democrat shares abortion pill experience that left her ‘hemorrhaging in the bath’

Trump-backed Iowa US Senate hopeful says Iran war must ‘be brought to a successful and immediate end’

2027 Working Dogs Commemorative Coin designs unveiled at the White House

Misleading ballot image prompts election review in Virginia

‘Jews for Abdul’ featured in el Sayed campaign video are actually activists with anti-Israel group

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.