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.

House Dem compares Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown to ‘terrorism,’ vows to abolish ICE

Abbott surges Texas troopers to border after cartel kingpin’s killing sparks violence in Mexico

Notorious Mexican Drug Lord Was Killed After Secret Rendezvous with Lover Went Awry

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Accused of Racism After Making SAT Score Comment to Black Mayor

Republicans make new House push on cartels after death of Mexico kingpin

Trump’s ‘worldwide tariff’ sets stage for rebuke from Congress ahead of midterm elections

Trump Predicts Supreme Court ‘Will Find a Way to Come to the Wrong Conclusion’ on Birthright Citizenship

ICE arrests convicted pedophiles, violent assailants as Trump meets with Angel Families

Ex-Navy SEAL puts ‘deranged’ Mexican drug cartel on notice after violent weekend: ‘More like ISIS’

Housekeeper expected to play key role in trial of wife accused of husband’s murder in wealthy ski town

How to Get a Birth Certificate for Dummies: A Guide for Democrats Who Oppose Secure Elections

Secret tapes sink shooter’s defense in Scott Spivey road rage killing

Angel Families praise Trump for immigration crackdown: ‘You are the man’

Trump halts Angel Families speech to check on woman in audience

Watch: CNN Host Goes Rogue on Air, Saying ‘Blue Cities Are Out of Control’ and Then Tearing Them Apart for 2 Minutes Straight

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.