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.

Media Pushes New Pandemic – CBS News Rolls Out Fear Campaign Over Ebola Outbreak with ‘No Vaccine, No Treatment’

Jeanine Pirro Threatens Parents After Wild Teens Create Disturbing Scene in D.C. Restaurant

Pelosi intervenes in Democratic race to succeed her

Michigan Senate hopeful courting progressives entertains Iron Dome for Palestinians

Civil liberty advocates sue blue state over ‘show your papers’ gun law

Retired Austin cop tears into leftist city council for stripping police of key tools before shooting rampage

Trump Says He Canceled 11th-Hour Iran Bombing at Request of Saudi Leaders Amid New Peace Talks

Supreme Court Bluntly Swats Down Virginia Dems’ Power Grab

DHS, War Dept join probe into Singham network allegedly sowing discord in US

New York’s ‘wrong-headed’ defendant-friendly laws helped toss Mangione evidence: retired cop

‘Unelected mayor of DC’: Trump continues Washington makeover despite backlash

Los Angeles School District Pivots Away from Denying Equal Treatment to Student Bible Club

Poland seeks answers after Pentagon scraps planned US armored brigade rotation

Blue-state tax burden fuels Americans fleeing to Republican-led southern states

An unburdened Bill Cassidy doesn’t regret Trump impeachment vote after primary loss

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.