Epstein’s jail guards opt against plea deal from feds
WASHINGTON — 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 said.
The existence of the plea offer signals that 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 halfhour, as required, and of fabricating log entries to show that they had. As part of the proposed plea deal, prosecutors wanted the guards to admit that 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.
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-yearold 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 ability to take his life while incarcerated at one of the most secure jails in America ended the possibility of a trial that would have involved prominent figures. And it sparked widespread anger that he wouldn’t have to answer for the allegations. He had pleaded not guilty.
Attorney General William Barr, who has said investigators found “serious irregularities” at the jail, said the FBI’s investigation had been slowed because some witnesses had been uncooperative.