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.

America Will Turn 250 in July as a Deeply Divided Country, But Our Spirit Remains Unbroken

Louisiana Passes Key Bill Letting Churches Protect Themselves from Leftist Protesters

The next frontier: Washington grapples with its latest space oddity

Soros-backed nonprofit accuses NJ Gov Sherrill of spreading ‘MAGA propaganda’ on ICE detainees

Taxpayer-funded ‘Meth Mansion’ under fire as crime concerns mount around homeless campus

Israeli soldier killed near Beaufort Castle, symbol of past occupation of Lebanon, as Trump demands ceasefire

Judge unseals DOJ fight with Fulton County over 2020 election worker information

Priceless Video: Living Wall of Riot Cops Opens, Pulls in Unsuspecting Anti-ICE Punk, Closes Like He Was Never There

Trump admin backs off controversial $2B fund, clearing path for stalled GOP immigration bill

Watch: MSNBC Shill Is Scared to Attend July 4 Parties but Was Somehow Fine When BLM Burned Down Minneapolis Behind Him

Teen athlete arrested, three horses pulled from competition after alleged overnight barn attack

Biden’s posh vacation enclave roiled as church axes July 4 tradition over ‘whiteness’ debate: ‘Spewing lies’

Judge denies Tyler Robinson secrecy request and orders hearing on prosecutors’ statements

Marine combat veteran bets big on Hispanic outreach in bid to flip Dem-held House seat

Video: Panicking Anti-ICE ‘Medic’ Is Almost in Tears Begging Rioters to Leave as NJ State Police Roll in the Big Guns

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.