Officers in Epstein case turn down plea deal: Sources
The two correctional officers working the night of Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide have declined plea offers, three federal law enforcement sources briefed on the case confirmed to ABC News.
Charges could come as early as this month, the sources said. The Associated Press first reported the news.
Attorney General William Barr said after Epstein died "there will be accountability."
Epstein, the disgraced millionaire who was facing federal sex-trafficking charges, apparently died by suicide early on a Saturday, law enforcement sources and the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to ABC News.
Jail protocols requiring routine checks on Epstein's well-being appear not to have been followed in the hours before he was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, sources told ABC News in August.
The correctional officers' union for months has complained of understaffing, and those gripes are now part of the investigation into whether the routine checks were happening, sources said.
The two guards overseeing Epstein were both on overtime, with one of them working a mandatory overtime shift. The other was working his fifth overtime shift of the week, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
As an inmate in the Special Housing Unit at MCC, Epstein should have been checked on by a correctional officer every 30 minutes, according to Bureau of Prison protocols. But sources told ABC News that protocol was not followed prior to Epstein's death.
