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.

SPLC was once suspected of more crimes than current charges show

Three States Carry Out Executions on the Same Day in Rare Occurrence

Newly Elected Congressional Democrat Due to Face Felony Charge in Court

Netanyahu says US aid cut makes way for ‘mutual investment’ amid unclear plans for military cooperation

Ron Johnson presses to delay Senate GOP leadership elections: ‘Political malpractice’

Far-Left Media Outlet Abruptly Folds, Causing Conservatives to Dig Up Some of Its Most Insane Headlines

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to what happens next on Capitol Hill

Trump’s move from Wiles to Miller signals major tactical shift for governing without Congress

Watch: NBA Players Can’t Contain Themselves When Singer Desecrates Anthem with LGBT Flag

Houston mayor bolts early from ICE cooperation after blue wave crashes in Texas

Reporter’s Notebook: A user’s manual to upcoming leadership elections in the House and Senate

Newsom Commutes Sentences of California’s 548 Prisoners on Death Row

Meghan Markle’s father arrested on federal child pornography charges

Allies fear relying on US after Starshield disruption demonstrated ‘kill switch’ threat

MICHAEL RUIZ: California prosecutors revolt after Newsom orders state’s worst killers off death row

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.