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.

Numbers Don’t Lie: CNN, MSNBC Ratings Flip Upside Down from Trump’s First Term to Trump 2.0

Happy New Year: Pentagon Ends 2025 with a Bang, Hits Narco-Terrorists Whose Drugs Will Not Kill Americans This Year

Bernie Sanders ditches iconic mittens look while swearing in socialist Zohran Mamdani as NYC mayor

London mayor denies removing Star of David from fireworks show

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Copies One of Trump’s Signature Policies

Mamdani vows to govern as ‘democratic socialist’ and embrace big government

At Least It Wasn’t Snakes: Disney Employee Injured After Errant ‘Indiana Jones’ Boulder Falls off Track

Inside Trump’s first-year power plays and the court fights testing them

Jack Smith Gives Telling Non-Answer When Asked the Key Trump Question During Deposition

Colorado Man Sentenced to Prison in Nationwide Child Sexploitation Scheme – Given 1 Year for Each of His 84 Victims

The road ahead for transit in New York City in 2026 includes fare hikes

5 big immigration changes taking effect across the US

China’s global aggression check: Taiwan tensions, military posturing and US response in 2025

Here are the top US cities Trump could target with National Guard deployments in 2026

White House race underway: With 2026 looming, both parties are already playing for 2028

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.