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.

Mullin vows ‘zero change’ on immigration after Republicans suffer crushing midterm losses

Democratic Congresswoman Threatens Military Members ‘Down the Chain’ from Pete Hegseth with Investigations

Anti-Israel agitators swarm Biden in Ireland and hurl object at motorcade

This Midterm Result Should Give You Hope: Voters Passed Wave of Conservative Policies Nov. 3, Even as They Crushed GOP

Dem Robert Garcia Explains Rationale Behind Weaponizing Government: ‘Maybe It’s Because I’m Gay’

‘Forget 2028’: Senate GOP braces for a long stretch in the minority

New Michigan Mayor’s Swearing-In Shows How Far State Has Fallen

House GOP leaders block Massie’s Hegseth impeachment push

Ilhan Omar huddles with her DC-based lawyers during her first day back on Capitol Hill amid federal probes

Opposition to Schumer leading Senate grows amid calls for a ‘new generation’ from Democrats

Iran-backed terror suspects plotted attack on US troops using vans packed with fuel, DOJ says

Breaking: House Republicans Elect New Leader to Replace Mike Johnson

Jim Jordan picked as next House GOP leader: Sound off!

Top Dem cries ‘weaponization’ as comments warning young people not to join Trump admin land her in hot water

Watch: Van Jones Revealed Low-Key Org Weapon Dems Used to Win Nov 3 – Hit up to 300 Million People Daily, GOP Never Uncovered

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.