The two jail guards who were supposed to be checking on Jeffrey Epstein on the night he died have now entered into a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to falsifying records about what they were doing at the time, according to the New York Post.

The two guards — Tova Noel and Michael Thomas — admitted that they falsely filled out their time records that they were checking on Epstein every thirty minutes that night, when in fact they were sleeping or surfing the web, according to prosecutors.

The deal allows them to avoid jail time for their actions. Had they actually been doing their jobs, they might have interrupted what occurred. Instead, they will have to do community service and agree to cooperate in a continuing probe into Epstein’s death.

“After a thorough investigation, and based on the facts of this case and the personal circumstances of the defendants, the Government has determined that the interests of justice will best be served by deferring prosecution in this District,” US Attorney Audrey Strauss wrote to Federal Judge Analisa Torres, in a letter filed Friday.

The other thing a plea deal does is that they don’t have to testify publicly about the actual details of what occurred that night. So, some who doubt the suicide story might think this action tends to shut that down. Although, the question of “cooperation” is interesting. What would they have to cooperate in, if there was a suicide and they just failed to check on him?

The official ruling on Epstein is that it was a suicide. But after his death in August 2019, a poll indicated that only about a third of Americans believed that he committed suicide, the New York Post observed.

Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein and famous forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden have raised questions about whether it was suicide because of the nature of the fractures in the neck involved, which are more common in the case of a murder than a suicide, as well as other unexplained injuries on his body, including abrasions on his wrists. Baden observed the injuries on the body during the autopsy.

But the medical examiner in the case, Dr. Barbara Sampson,stood by her finding, “I stand firmly behind our determination of the cause and manner of death in this case,” she said. “In general, fractures of the hyoid bone and the cartilage can be seen in suicides and homicides.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) perhaps expressed the doubt best during a Senate hearing on the matter in November 2019.

.@Senjohnkennedy: “Christmas ornaments, drywall and Jeffrey Epstein – name three things that don’t hang themselves. That’s what the American people think…and they deserve some answers."

Full video here: https://t.co/Ku68U52JAV pic.twitter.com/0DDiQYgVHh

— CSPAN (@cspan) November 19, 2019