NEW YORK _ Two correction officers on duty when Jeffrey Epstein killed himself were charged Tuesday morning.
Guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, who worked in the Special Housing Unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, are due to appear in Manhattan Federal Court.
"For substantial portions of their shift, Noel and Thomas sat at their desk, browsed the internet and moved around the common area of the SHU," the indictment reads. "To conceal their failure to perform their duties, Noel and Thomas repeatedly signed false certifications attesting to having conducted multiple counts of inmates, when in truth and in fact, they had never conducted such counts."
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) released a statement on the arrests ahead of a Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on the troubled Bureau of Prisons, which controls the MCC.
"These arrests are important, but they're not the end of this: These guards aren't the only ones who should stand trial _ every one of Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators should be spending the rest of their lives behind bars," said Republican Sasse.
A spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman declined to comment.
The MCC has suffered from short-staffing and budget cuts that have plagued Bureau of Prisons facilities around the country.
Epstein, a multimillionaire financier, was awaiting trial for sex trafficking when he hanged himself in August. Attorney General William Barr previously said investigators found "irregularities" at the MCC, which has housed notorious terrorists and drug kingpins.
