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.

National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom dead after DC shooting: ‘Highly respected’

Erika Kirk shares emotional Thanksgiving message honoring Charlie: ‘What remains is sacred’

Trump says US will begin stopping Venezuelan drug traffickers by land: ‘Going to start very soon’

Breaking: Trump Announces Female National Guardsmen Has Died Following DC Shooting

Shedeur Sanders responds to Trump’s support after first win: ‘I TOLD YOU SO’

Flashback: Newsom’s 2020 Thanksgiving Rules Should Remind Us What True Authoritarianism Looks Like

DNC chair ‘never wants to hear again’ that Democrats have ‘problem with young men’

DHS moves to cut off South Texas Catholic Charities over migrant grant ‘misconduct,’ documents say

‘Jack Will Be the Architect’: Trump Teams with Jack Nicklaus to Revamp ‘Presidential Golf Course’

Thanksgiving recipes from America’s first families — presidential dishes to try at home

Pope Leo XIV speaks in Turkey ahead of ecumenical meeting with Orthodox patriarch

Military reveals just how much turkey shipped globally to ensure American troops enjoy Thanksgiving meal

Navy Sailor Makes Ultimate Sacrifice Saving Children from Dangerous Hawaiian Surf

Ex-FBI special agent explains Afghan vetting failures in wake of National Guard ambush: ‘Ticking time bomb’

Barr: A Law to Help Murdered Cops and Their Families Has a Devastating Loophole That Needs Fixing

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.