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.

Tom Homan Makes It Clear He’s All Business in Minneapolis: ‘I Didn’t Come … for Photo-Ops and Headlines’

Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: Walz shocks with misguided Holocaust comparison

Snowstorm could’ve sparked grid catastrophe if Biden climate policies weren’t reversed: Energy Dept

Trump Considering Major Strike on Iran After Latest Development in Nuclear Talks: Report

Ecuador complains to Trump admin, alleging ICE agent sought to enter Minneapolis consulate

Second elderly South Carolina woman dead from hypothermia in winter storm

Ellison brags to DNC activists how many times he has sued the Trump admin: ‘You can count on me’

Klobuchar launches Minnesota governor bid after Walz ends re-election run amid massive fraud scandal

Minnesota ICE protesters face few arrests despite continued unrest

How Democrats’ demands for judicial warrants in immigration enforcement would decimate deportation agenda

Illinois teen stabs pregnant woman 70 times, knifes dog, sets home ablaze during Facebook Marketplace meetup

Trump admin finds California ban on notifying parents of gender transitions violated federal law

Texas killer asks victims’ families for forgiveness before becoming first execution of 2026

Georgia assistant principal accused of stealing nearly $1K in Walmart merchandise at self-checkout

NJ councilwoman condemns ‘ignorance’ of comparing ICE agents to Nazis during heated meeting

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.