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.

The Redistricting Scheme That Could Help Dems Retake the House

Lawyers Claim Man’s Life ‘Stolen’ By ICE: Turns Out He Shot at an Officer

Russia tries to revive its relevance with support for Iran after failure to fight US moves in Venezuela

Trump vows to ‘take out’ Indiana GOP leader over redistricting fight

Homan Confirms ICE Agent Who Shot Renee Good Is ‘in Hiding’ Amid Rabid Leftist Death Threats

Progressive-backed Analilia Mejia faces uphill battle in bid to replace Mikie Sherrill

Border Patrol commander vows continued tear gas use after Minnesota fedreal judge’s order

Man allegedly assaulted with flagpole by Minneapolis anti-ICE agitators in violent parking garage attack

Tim Walz Gets the Response He Deserves After Suddenly Saying He Wants to ‘Turn the Temperature Down’

Minnesota National Guard placed on standby to support law enforcement as protests turn violent

Illegal migrant workers caught on camera leaping across rooftops to escape Border Patrol in California raid

‘SET UP’: Cohen Accuses Alvin Bragg, Letitia James of Coercing Him to Turn on Trump

Trump Gives Compassionate Response to Renee Good’s Father, Calls Her Likely ‘Wonderful’ Under ‘Normal Circumstances’

‘Where Was the Outrage?’: Father of 21-Year-Old Woman Killed By Illegal Rips Renee Good Protesters

One of Tyler Robinson’s last meals as a free man may have been a steak dinner — medium rare

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.