This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge. 

Update: The FBI is treating Epstein’s death as a criminal matter, according to Bloomberg.

“Federal prosecutors unsealed charges against two guards at the U.S. jail in lower Manhattan who were supposed to keep watch on financier Jeffrey Epstein.”

“The two guards are charged in New York with falsifying documents and conspiracy to defraud the U.S.”

Kathleen Hawk Sawyer made the admission during a line of questioning involving Sen. Lindsay Graham, in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“With a case this high profile, there has got to be either a major malfunction of the system or criminal enterprise at foot to allow this to happen. So are you looking at both, is the FBI looking at both?” the South Carolina Republican senator asked.

“The FBI is involved and they are looking at criminal enterprise, yes,” Sawyer responded. –Fox News

BOP Director Sawyer says at Judiciary Committee hearing that the FBI is investigating the possibility of a "criminal enterprise" in probe of Jeffrey Epstein's suicide. (At 31 minute mark)https://t.co/uBvjQWtIEy

— Stephen Brown (@PPVSRB) November 19, 2019

Two federal correctional officers who were on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein died were arrested early Tuesday on federal charges related to their failure to check on him the night he died in his cell, according to the New York Times, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

The two federal Bureau of Prisons employees were expected to be charged later Tuesday morning and appear in United States District Court in Manhattan.

The charges would be the first to arise from a criminal inquiry into the death of Mr. Epstein, who hanged himself at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. –NYT

The guards faced harsh scrutiny after Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, after failing to check on him every 30 minutes as required. Instead, they fell asleep for hours and falsified records to cover up what they had done according to reports.

Prosecutors offered the officers a plea deal according to CNN, which they declined, reporting that “at least one federal prison worker on duty the night before Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his prison cell was offered a plea deal in connection with the multimillionaire’s death.”

Of the two officers who had the responsibility to monitor Epstein, one was not a detention guard but was temporarily reassigned to that post, according to CNN reporting. The guard, a man not identified by officials, had previously been trained as a corrections officer but had moved to another position. Rules at the Federal Bureau of Prisons allow people who work in other prison jobs, such as teachers and cooks, to be trained to fill in for posts usually manned by regular guards.

The official ruling on Epstein’s death was suicide, although skeptics have suggested that Epstein’s sudden death was all too convenient as it also buried the toxic secrets of countless implicated “luminaries” and Wall Street and Beltway VIPs across all sectors of US life.

At the end of October, prominent forensic expert Michael Baden refuted the official narrative, stating at the end of October that Epstein was “strangulated.”