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.

Vance, Cruz, head to Iowa on 2026 missions as 2028 GOP race to succeed Trump heats up

Suspect arrested for allegedly running meth lab at Michigan State University’s largest academic building

Two Kentucky bank employees shot and killed during robbery, police hunting suspect

Dominican migrant with deportation order, wanted for murder in home country freed by Biden-appointed judge

Wyoming official faces backlash after posting ‘hang bad judges’ comment on abortion ruling

Doctor and son accused of running dangerous side-business scheme in New York

DOJ sues New Jersey over laws giving illegal aliens in-state tuition, says citizens treated as ‘second-class’

Hawley champions GUARD Act as heartbroken families say AI chatbots allegedly pushed teens to self-harm

Democratic Congressman Suggests Execution for Pete Hegseth

GOP lawmakers seek to defund HBCU after it canceled Republican’s commencement speech

DOJ Axes a Slew of Gun-Control Regulations in ‘Historic’ Day for the 2nd Amendment

Watch: Johnny Carson’s Reaction to Reagan Shooting Goes Viral After Trump Targeted

MN lawmakers unload on Walz’s ‘legacy’ after he touts fraud record in final annual address: ‘Ridiculous’

DNC chair ripped for downplaying unreleased 2024 autopsy after Dem losses: ‘Self-inflicted crisis’

Trump jokes he’d look ’20 pounds heavier’ in a bulletproof vest, says he doesn’t think about threats

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.