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.

Watch: JD Vance Explains How Iran Deal Is ‘Fundamentally’ Different Than Obama’s JCPOA

Vance shares how he’s gearing up for lion’s den debut on ‘The View’

Trump’s Iran deal sparks GOP demands for vote as Congress remains in the dark

NC School Pays Dearly After Admin Wildly Bullied Student Who Wrote Sweet Message About Charlie Kirk

FBI thwarts explosive drone attack against UFC Freedom 250 fight

Trump says he had a ‘very good meeting’ with Zelensky at G7

Pentagon files reveal agents’ reports of ‘orbs launching orbs’ near sensitive US security site

FBI disrupts alleged explosive-drone plot targeting White House UFC event, officials say

Multiple Sources Confirm GOP Senator Attempted IVF Expansion During NDAA Talks

Trump Comes Out Against FISA ‘If it Doesn’t Come with the Save America Act,’ Complicating Congressional Showdown

Is AI Making Us Dumb?

Trump admin puts alleged ‘birth tourism’ scheme on notice as expert delivers warning to hospitals

Teen accused of killing stepsister on Carnival cruise ship ordered detained before murder trial

Robert De Niro Says He Can’t Love America While ‘Xenophobic Tyrant’ Trump is President

Breaking: Gavin Newsom and His Wife Are Reportedly Under DOJ Investigation

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.