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.

NYC woman critically injured after being stabbed multiple times while jogging along Brooklyn waterfront

Democrats’ self-inflicted wounds threaten high-stakes Michigan Senate race

Tough Time Finding an Affordable Car? Thank Obama’s Destruction of 680k Working Vehicles in 2009

Texas Claims 9 Rio Grande Islands in Power Move to Deny Cartels Safe Havens

College Hockey Star, Aspiring NYPD Cop Killed in Wrong-Way Crash: It Was a Twice-Deported Illegal Behind the Wheel

Tensions Heat Up in Taiwan Straight as China Shadows US Warship, Separate Maritime Standoff Erupts Near Taiwan

How House Democrats’ ‘deterrence message’ on Trump jobs could backfire

Outrage Erupts Over Minnesota Election Official’s Message on ‘Somali TV’: Doesn’t This Mean Illegals Can Easily Vote?

Pollster Who Predicted Clinton Landslide Against Trump Says GOP Can Still Win Midterms: ‘Lot of Winning Combinations’

Veteran Dem operative says subpar GOP candidates poised to hand over Senate majority

Trump prosecutions under Biden set precedent for DOJ’s Alaska ‘Decoy Dan’ probe, ex-FEC chair says

Musk Gets the Last Word on X After the Hit-Piece Documentary Attacking Him Goes Down in Flames as ‘Unmitigated Flop’

Biden Propaganda Exposed?: Arrested ‘Shadow Gov’t’ Ex-FBI Official May Have Helped NBC Bury the Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Surface-to-Air Missile System Deployed at Mar-a-Lago: ‘Heightened Threat Environment’

Major US children’s hospital opens historic detransition clinic after $10M legal showdown

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.