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.

CNN Journo Called Trump ‘a Guy Who Wants Us Dead’ Minutes Before Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting

Flashback: When a Magnificent Cathedral Was Torched by an African Illegal Who Murdered a Priest He Lived With

Trump’s DC beautification push wins rare Dem praise as president snaps landmarks back to life

White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting sharpens focus on Trump’s ballroom construction proposal

Navy Sends Robots to Take Out Iranian Mines in Strait of Hormuz: Several Successful Detonations Already Reported

WHCD Shooter Was California Teacher Once Praised as ‘Teacher of the Month’

House lawmakers to watch as GOP leadership tries to pass FISA extension

Becerra gains momentum in California governor’s race after Swalwell shake-up

California DOGE leader slams Newsom, Bonta over state’s massive fraud issues: “Every day is opposite day”

Mississippi middle schoolers stop runaway bus after driver loses consciousness from asthma attack

Correspondents’ dinner chaos hits high-profile guests already marked by political violence

Who is Cole Allen? California man named as suspect in White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting

Breaking: WH Correspondents’ Dinner Shooter Identified, Appears to Be Kamala Harris Donor on Public Listing

Trump strikes defiant tone after another shooting: ‘I can’t be concerned’

WH Correspondents’ Dinner Cancelled After Shooting Despite Trump Wanting the Show to Go on

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.