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Video From Guthrie's Home Shows Armed, Masked Man Obstructing Camera; White House Declines to Say if Trump Spoke With Police About Epstein in 2000s; Justice Department Unredacts More Names in Epstein Files. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 10, 2026 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:01:11]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We do begin with major Breaking News in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. The FBI has just released stunning new videos and still images taken from the missing 84-year-old's front porch, appearing to show a person wearing a mask and gloves, carrying a backpack, holding a flashlight in their mouth, armed with a gun and a holster, it appears. And in the video, the suspect can be seen walking up to the front-door camera.

At one point, the suspect steps away. You see there, picking up what appears to be foliage, plants from the front yard to try to use them to obstruct the camera's view.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And shortly after the FBI released the surveillance footage, Savannah Guthrie, Nancy's daughter, shared it on Instagram posting, quote, "We believe she is still alive. Bring her home."

Let's get you straight to Tucson, Arizona. CNN's Jake Tapper and Ed Lavandera are there. Jake, tell us more about these images.

It looks like we're having some technical issues there, that signal apparently just froze. We'll get it back up in just a moment. But we can get some perspective now from Andrew McCabe. He's a former FBI Deputy Director.

Andrew, what is your reaction to this new evidence?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST AND FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Yeah, it's a remarkable series of images. The still images are much better than I expected. There's a lot of detail in the images of the clothing and the gloves and all this stuff that by themselves would not mean much. But when you put them all together, might very well inspire someone who actually knows this person to say, hey, I know who that is.

But then when you get a look at the video, it's like a whole different dimension. This is not, in my opinion, this is not someone, first of all, who was ever trained to carry a gun. No person with law enforcement or military training would ever carry a firearm in a holster like that right where that is at this almost the center of his body hanging off of his belt there. It's like not very tactically sound for a lot of reasons.

His approach to the house, it's not particularly furtive or concerned. He just kind of walks up with his house -- with his head bent towards the ground, obviously to avoid being seen. You then see him uses his hand like he is in that video right there to kind of cup over the lens of the camera to keep it from getting the close up of his face, which we get eventually anyway.

So it's -- so even here where he turns around, he's looking for something on the floor that he can use. He doesn't seem to be in a rush. He never looks out towards the street. He doesn't seem to be concerned that anyone sees him or what he's doing. It's really remarkable.

It's kind of not what you think about when you think about an executed kidnapping. Usually, it's more than one person that's engaged in trying to take someone out of a residence. Here you have this image anyway. It's just one person. Maybe there are others. We don't know.

But, yeah, it's just -- it's very odd. This person does not look like they're -- you know, they're not moving with a purpose, as we say in law enforcement.

KEILAR: Yeah. Also straight -- I mean, using foliage to cover up a camera lens, you would think, Andy, if -- I mean, I'm no law enforcement expert here, but if someone had cased this house and thought there was a camera they were going to have to obstruct, that they would bring something to obstruct it, not go trying to kind of improvise there with something from the lawn. It's really interesting what you're saying about the gun.

I am curious, if people are going to be looking at this, OK, and they're going to be thinking about whether it's anyone they know, is there something that you think they should be thinking about in particular that may not occur to them?

[14:05:00]

What would you -- what would you prompt them to be looking at here?

MCCABE: Yeah, so it's -- what you want to look at are things that seem totally normal, prosaic details that otherwise, you know, they don't -- they don't shout out kidnapper at you. But these are the things that could identify this person. Right. So and also, let's keep in mind that the perception of color is off here because this is obviously a night, you know, a camera that's equipped to work at night.

So everything is reduced to gray scales. We can't speak conclusively about color, but he's wearing some sort of a sweatshirt or a jacket that has reflective tape on either side of the center zipper that goes down the middle. That jacket also appears to have some darker trim that comes across horizontally at chest level. You can see it well in that photograph. He's wearing black nitrile gloves. Now, those are readily available in lots of different places. But still, it's interesting that he's wearing them. You see there in his wrist, again, there's another strip of material around the cuff of the jacket that is reflective at night. So, these are all things that someone who lives with him or near him or, you know, does laundry with him might notice as some piece of clothing they've seen before.

The ski mask is like really old school, like kind of knit ski mask. You don't even see those things, like, out skiing anymore. It also occurs to me that in the next -- one of the other photographs, not this one with the hand close up, but the other one, if you look, just under his nose there, in that photograph, you can see what appears to be a mustache underneath that mask. So I think it's highly probable that this person also has facial hair, at least to include a mustache, maybe more than that.

So it's those kind of details that, again, individually don't mean anything. But when you put them all together, if you know this person, you might -- that might jog your ability to identify him and provide that information to the authorities.

SANCHEZ: And the hope is that that will soon happen. Let's go now to Jake Tapper and Ed Lavandera, who are in Tucson for us. Jake?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD: So, the images are striking and startling. And it is important to remember that the arched doorway right there is where all of these images are from. Presumably, this individual walked up the driveway, which is the road that you see right in the foreground there, behind the individual. And all of this taken together is a remarkable amount of information about this person who carried out this horrific act of abducting Nancy Guthrie.

And just to walk back, we're on the 10th day now of this disappearance and there has been very little information that the Guthrie family, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff have been able to provide to the public. But, they now have this font of information in terms of how the individual walks, how this individual is built, what the individual was wearing that night, why -- there are questions certainly about was he or she trying to avoid the camera when they walked up?

And as Brianna, as you've raised, if they knew there was a camera, why did they then have to use the leaves? You have the leaves -- Ed will show you the leaves that they were using. This individual was using and try to --

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is like typical shrubbery that is around here. And there are a couple of different other varieties. But, you know, this is probably similar. I'll walk back over there and get a better vantage point. But I think this is probably pretty similar to what that guy picked up.

TAPPER: He or she comes with a full winter face mask, comes with gloves. Very little of his or her face is visible. Presumably it's a man, although we don't know -- the law enforcement has not ruled anything out as of now.

And this is really the biggest break in the case so far. There has been so little reason for hope as of now. The three videos that the Guthrie family delivered were aimed at the kidnappers. It is unclear if the person that put the ransom notes together and sent them to law enforcement, whether that is legitimate.

And then yesterday, of course, Savannah Guthrie, with that heartfelt plea, thanking people for their support, thanking them for their prayers, but requesting tips, requesting anything that you might have suggesting that, in fact, a break is needed in the case. And law enforcement, the FBI and working with partners, presumably with Nest Camera and others, was able to get some of this footage, even though presumably, it was thought to have been lost when the individual took that one ring Nest camera from the porch.

[14:10:00]

LAVANDERA: Yeah. And there's other cameras on the property, presumably inside as well. You have to think, Jake, that they're probably doing similar work with -- you know, if that camera captured that, the cameras inside, if there are inside or somewhere else, might have caught something else. So they continue to work toward that.

And I also think and we do know from talking to investigators throughout the week and neighbors around here, we do know that there has been a great deal of canvassing this area, re-canvassing this area. You know, it takes a -- depending on which path you come into this particular -- on to this particular street, it can take a mile, mile-and-a-half to get out onto the main roads around here. But presumably, whoever this person is, probably dressed like this at home and then drove into the neighborhood. Let's presume that.

So maybe someone driving around at 1 a.m., they see some -- you know, they're at a red light and they look over and they see some guy like, why is this guy dressed with this jacket and black gloves, you know, on a steering wheel? So maybe this is the thing that jogs the memory or says, hey, I saw a guy at the intersection of X and Y, and you should check out. And that maybe leads them to another video clue somewhere around the city, which we do know that investigators have been going to convenience stores in the area. They have been combing and knocking on doors, asking people to check cameras in a lot of different places.

It's almost impossible to keep up with how many places they've been to.

TAPPER: Yeah.

LAVANDERA: That work continues.

TAPPER: And the Nest cameras from this house are so important because most of the other houses have so much shrubbery or foliage blocking images. With a house right across the street, I can barely even see the house behind the cameraman here, because there's so much in terms of trees and bushes. So even if they had 30 ring cameras, Nest cameras, they wouldn't necessarily have gotten any images.

So, the fact that they were able to recover, the FBI working with private partners, working with Nest camera and others, it's just remarkable work. And as we've noted, Brianna and Boris, there have been major breaks in cases and suspects apprehended with less information than this when it comes to Luigi Mangione, when it comes to the individual charged in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

So hopefully, there are people out there. And Savannah Guthrie posted on Instagram something along those lines. Someone out there knows who this is. And if you do or you suspect that you do, 1-800-CALL-FBI. Brianna and Boris?

KEILAR: Yeah, such a good point, Jake. And we know how pivotal it was in other cases when it came to the arrest of Luigi Mangione or the Boston marathon bomber or the Elizabeth Smart case. Putting out a picture is just so pivotal. And Andy McCabe, back to you.

We want to ask you a question because this is going to generate a flood of tips. And I wonder how law enforcement is going to be wading through those, and separating the needles from the haystack.

MCCABE: Yeah, it's a great question. So I think -- so let's take one step back. I think they were preparing for this as early as yesterday, certainly. I think to some degree, Savannah's video yesterday was kind of preparing the ground, as we say, getting people to think about staying aware and calling in tips. We also heard yesterday that they were surging additional resources to the Tucson area.

And the reason for that is, they were likely anticipating doing something that would generate a lot of tips. And then you need boots on the ground to run those leads out. You're going to have hopefully, many, many people in this area who call in and say, I think I saw something weird.

Every one of those people, you got to put two agents on their doorstep within a couple of hours and have those people interviewed to find out what they have to offer. Maybe they have a ring camera in the area that hasn't been looked at yet. That's got to get looked at. So, that's a lot of work for agents to do.

In addition to that, before those leads can even make it out into the agent's hands, they have to come in through multiple different intake ports. So, we get a lot of information from the Internet. We still get a lot of information by phone, people call in. They provide photographs. Sometimes they provide video. All of that stuff has to be looked at and prioritized.

And I can tell you that they probably have hundreds of analysts and folks out in our West Virginia facility, CJIS, the Criminal Justice Information Services Division of the FBI, that is just expert in processing -- receiving and processing information like this. They are plussing up, going to overtime on all shifts and making sure that all these calls, all these emails, everything that comes in gets reviewed and responded to right away. So, there's a massive back end of people that's got to do a lot of work to convert these calls, these tips, these observations into hard leads. The vast majority of them will not solve the case. We know this. But this is just -- that's the way this math works. To get to the one or two or three calls that you absolutely need, you might have to go through many thousands of others. So it's just a matter of doing it as quickly as you can.

KEILAR: All right, Andy, thank you so much. Thank you so much to Jake and Ed. They are in Arizona. We'll have much more when we come back.

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[14:19:53]

KEILAR: We are following new fallout over the Epstein files. The White House just moments ago, responding to new questions about a newly revealed document in the files that details an FBI interview with the former police chief in Palm Beach.

[14:20:00]

In 2019, the chief told the FBI that in the mid-2000s, just after Epstein's sex charge became public, Trump quote, "called the Palm Beach Police Department to tell him, thank goodness you're stopping him. Everyone has known he's been doing this."

And it goes on to say that Trump told him people in New York knew Epstein was disgusting. Trump said Maxwell was Epstein's operative, adding she is evil and to focus on her. The document also says Trump told the chief that he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present and he got the hell out of there.

Here was Karoline Leavitt moments ago.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, did he call the chief?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look, it was a phone call that may or may not have happened in 2006. I don't know the answer to that question. What I'm telling you is that what President Trump has always said, is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein was a creep, and that remains true. And this call, if it did happen, corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning.

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KEILAR: Not necessarily. In 2019, when asked by reporters, President Trump said he quote, "Had no idea that Epstein had been abusing underage girls." Authorities have not accused President Trump of any wrongdoing related to Epstein. That's important to note.

And we're joined now by an attorney representing 11 Epstein survivors, Arick Fudali. Arick, thanks for being with us. What's your reaction to this new reporting? How are your clients reacting? And what questions is this raising for you all?

ARICK FUDALI, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING 11 EPSTEIN ACCUSERS: Well, it's certainly jarring and a little bit shocking to see such a prominent figure like Donald Trump have such direct communication regarding Jeffrey Epstein and make such, you know, serious allegations.

This is a big counter to everything we've heard from Donald Trump who has sort of distanced himself and distanced his knowledge about Jeffrey Epstein, other than what you reported, you know, kicking him out of Mar-a-Lago. So it's certainly intriguing. And it goes along with a lot of what we're seeing from these documents.

You know, the way these documents have been rolled out was pretty catastrophic. One of my clients was named over 500 times. There's been protection of accused predators, that type of thing. But now that we're sort of revealing more and more from these and getting some of these names unredacted, some of these potential really salacious documents, we're starting to learn more and more about who was in Jeffrey Epstein's circle, what sort of men he kept, you know, associated with him. And we're starting to see some serious questions asked and some accountability.

KEILAR: Congressman Massie, Congressman Ro Khanna, they viewed some of these unredacted documents yesterday. They said they were able to identify six men whose names are being hidden from the public that they say should not be. And they are likely implicated here, incriminated. What do you make of what they're saying?

FUDALI: Well, that's the most shockingly frustrating part about all of this is, there is zero, zero reason that those men should be protected right now. The Department of Justice did a disastrous job in redacting the names of the victims, the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. But it seems that they've done a profound, overbroad job when it comes to redacting the names of those in Jeffrey Epstein's circles. That is exactly counter to the entire point of this.

There is zero reason, it's not attorney-client privilege, doesn't appear to be ongoing investigations. There appears to be no basis to withhold or redacted the names of these very prolific individuals who are in Jeffrey Epstein's circle other than to protect them. I cannot fathom another reason. And I think the DOJ has some very serious questions to answer as to why those men were redacted.

KEILAR: What more are you and your clients hoping to learn from these members of Congress who can look at these unredacted documents, albeit according to them by only four computers when there are millions of documents?

FUDALI: I mean, yeah, exactly. I mean, it's more and more of this sort of catastrophic process that is almost clearly, at this point, designed to protect the accused, protect potential predators, protect powerful men. There's been no efforts to protect the survivor. All those efforts seem to be a place on protecting those powerful men in Jeffrey Epstein's circles. But what we'd like to see is more and more names revealed. And perhaps these Congressmen can force the release of these documents unredacted, completely unredacted, other than what, of course, protecting the names of survivors. It's important to remember that that's what the law called for. The law called for the completely unredacted full release of the documents except for the names of survivors.

So from my standpoint, it seems that the Department of Justice has continually violated this law and will be in violation of this law until every single document is released completely unredacted except for protecting the names of survivors.

KEILAR: Arick Fudali, we thank you for your time. And still to come, we are now following Breaking News in the search for Nancy Guthrie.

[14:25:00]

You see this video. This has just been released by the FBI from the night that Nancy Guthrie was abducted. Someone in a ski mask at her front door. Day 10, this video now out and it is very clear. We're going to discuss this ahead.

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SANCHEZ: Back to our Breaking News. The FBI has released images and several videos that show a masked, armed man outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, who was kidnapped 10 days ago --