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.

Melania Trump secures $7.2M for foster care scholarships at LSU ahead of Alabama showdown

DeSantis Slams Vivek Ramaswamy’s Disastrous Ohio Campaign: ‘How Bad Did They Beat Vivek? Like a Drum!’

DeSantis Gives Another Powerful Rebuke of GOP’s Strategy: ‘Screaming Socialism’ Doesn’t Work

Trump orders DOJ probe into Democrats over alleged threats against admin officials

Biden-appointed judge probes whether ICE skirted judge’s release orders in Colorado cases

Salon Signs Off: The Truth Outlasts the Smear

Newsom’s death-row commutations spark DA revolt as prosecutors warn of legal fight

Turning Point USA event at University of New Mexico ends with two arrests and a string of charges

The Left’s Joe Rogan Can’t Stop Laughing at Twisted Charlie Kirk Execution Fantasy

Slew of Arrests For Newly Elected Democrats Across the Country, Some Could Face Years in Jail

White House Slammed for Tone-Deaf Post About ‘Triumphal Arch’ Following Midterm Bloodbath

9 mystery fingerprints from OJ Simpson murder case could hold new clues more than 30 years later

Republican state lawmakers reported Omar to the IRS in 2019

California prosecutors slam Newsom’s death row commutations, accuse governor of putting ‘politics over people’

Far Worse Than Previously Reported: Big Tech’s Ticking Time Bomb Is a Massive Financial Exposure Tied to AI

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.