Jeffrey Epstein may have shuffled off this mortal coil, but his story is far from over. (Much to the continued consternation of many of his friends and associates, I’m sure.) It’s now being reported that two of the guards who were responsible for checking in on the prisoner every half hour were offered a plea deal by federal prosecutors, but they turned it down and decided to go to trial. You just know there’s got to be more to this story, right? (NY Post)

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.

That’s according to people familiar with the matter.

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 accusations against these guards (or at least what we know or suspect them to be so far) would seem to be fairly straightforward. They were allegedly sleeping on the job (having been working too much overtime), failed to check in on Epstein as required and falsified the logs for their rounds. If they had actually been checking in on Epstein he’d probably still be alive, so that part seems fairly cut and dried. And we should also be able to assume that the logbooks were collected as part of the investigation, so if they were falsified, that should be pretty easily established also.

If that’s the case, why would the guards turn down a plea deal? One possibility is that their attorneys believe they can establish that the working conditions in the crowded and understaffed jail were such that the guards couldn’t be expected to keep up with the pace. I don’t know about that line of defense, though. Maybe?

A second possibility is that the offer just wasn’t tempting. If they’re looking at significant prison time on these charges (and they could be), and all the prosecutors were offering was to knock off a few months, they may figure it’s worth a shot at letting a jury decide.

But let’s veer off into conspiracy theory territory for a moment here. In order to offer a plea deal, the prosecutors must have wanted something in return. Sure, it might have just been a guilty plea to avoid the time and expense of a trial, but what if it was something else? Is it possible that the guards are part of a group of people who know something that’s not being told to the public and they were being offered an easy sentence if they would turn state’s evidence on their superiors?

If it winds up being something like that, then the coroner’s conclusion about the cause of Epstein’s death is back on the table for a fresh look. As we’ve discussed multiple times here, nothing about this case smells right and it hasn’t from the beginning. But unless someone with direct knowledge decides to step forward and offer new, plausible testimony, we’re stuck with the results that we have now.

Even if nothing new comes out of the investigation into the jail, some of Epstein’s former friends may still be sweating bullets. In France, the police just put out a call for more victims and witnesses to come forward. And they may start kicking over some new stones any day now. (Associated Press)

French police launched a fresh appeal Friday for witnesses and victims to come forward to aid their probe of Jeffrey Epstein and allegations that one of the financier’s associates drugged and raped young models.

The appeal was longer and more detailed than a previous, more limited call for evidence that police had made previously on Facebook and Twitter on Sept. 11.

If too many more victims and witnesses come forward, it’s not hard to get the feeling that the dam is close to breaking. And it’s not just girls and women who were served up to Epstein himself we’re talking about. (Those victims will never have true justice now that the pervert is six feet under.) All of Epstein’s “clients” who were set up with underage “dates” must still be very nervous. And it would be a real shame if any other key witnesses suddenly committed “suicide.”