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.

Students find more violent imagery near University of Wisconsin campus after anti-ICE displays probed

Accidental Confession: Dem in Video Commanding Troops to Disobey Orders Just Confirmed She Knows She Committed Sedition

Unreal Video: Woke TN Candidate for Congress Was Literally Thrown Out of Gov.’s Office After Trying Mad Dash Past Security in 2019

Charlotte GOP chair says mayor creates perception that ‘does not match the reality’ amid violent crime wave

Comey expects further legal scrutiny from Trump admin, criticizes ‘fools who would frighten us’

Dems move to set limits on Trump’s donor-funded White House ballroom, claiming ‘bribery in plain sight’

How millions of illegal immigrants got jobs in the US

Bombshell report alleges Biden team forced airports to house migrants, risking safety

Illegal immigrant who stole DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s Gucci bag pleads guilty, faces deportation

Sanctuary politicians’ rhetoric led to 1,150% surge in violence against ICE agents: DHS

Deep Dive: Just What Are These ‘Illegal’ Orders Dems Want the Military to Disobey? Here They Are, And They’re Anything but Illegal

Bondi targets James Comey, Letitia James in legal battle: ‘hold…accountable for unlawful conduct’

DOJ renews fight for Epstein and Maxwell grand jury records

WNBA Star Admits That Elite 8th Graders Could ‘Probably’ Beat WNBA Players

DOJ files motion to unseal Epstein docs in latest step toward release

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.