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.

Republicans Introduce OMAR Act to Deal With Corruption in Congress

The cost of this grocery staple is nearing record highs — and Americans can’t get enough

Judge says Abrego Garcia Supreme Court ruling may shape Venezuelan deportation case

Florida Poaches Yet Another Juggernaut California Business as Economic Red Shift Continues

Jasmine Crockett’s vulgar 6-word message for Trump in Epstein probe

Senate Republicans find their secret weapon as they try to navigate midterm ‘headwinds’ with Palm Beach getaway

Watch: Patriots Player Helps Take Down Field Invader in Moment Not Seen During Broadcast

Ghislaine Maxwell pleads Fifth Amendment, dodges questions in House Oversight Epstein probe

GOP accelerates Trump judge confirmations as pressure builds to kill Senate blue slip

Turning Point USA’s Alternative Halftime Show Draws Huge Numbers

Nancy Guthrie’s church prays God would ‘guide the authorities’ in search

US forces hunt down and board tanker ship defying Trump admin quarantine

Hochul running mate voted to allow noncitizen voting in NYC elections

Bogus businesses and ‘lax’ oversight: How hospice fraud has flourished in California

Bad Bunny’s halftime show ripped for suspected political message and more top headlines

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.