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Don Lemon To Be Arraigned In Minnesota Church Protest Case; Trump Visits Fort Bragg To Meet With Troops; Search For Savannah Guthrie's Missing Mom Nears Two Weeks; FBI Says Male Suspect In Guthrie Case Is 5'9" To 5'10", Average Build; Rubio, European Leaders Agree, Old World Order No Longer Exists. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 13, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Don Lemon facing federal charges following an anti-ICE protest inside of a St. Paul church. We have the latest on his arraignment.

Plus, growing frustration and more questions than answers as the search for Nancy Guthrie nears its second week with zero suspects publicly named. And a judge ordering the maximum sentence for the au pair who helped Brendan Banfield plot the double murder of his wife and another man. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

Thank you so much for sharing your afternoon with us. First, we begin this hour with Breaking News. At any moment, independent journalist, Don Lemon is set to face a federal judge in Minnesota and you can see him here arriving in court.

The former CNN anchor is charged with two federal crimes stemming from an anti-ICE protest at a St. Paul church last month. Prosecutors say he took part in a takeover style attack and intimidated congregants. Lemon has repeatedly said, including when he was there, that he was there as a journalist, in that capacity, including while the incident unfolded. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: I'm just here, I'm not -- I'm just here photographing. I'm not part of -- I'm not part of the group. I'm just here photographing. I'm a journalist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN Chief Media Analyst, Brian Stelter joins us now. Brian, Lemon acting as a journalist rather than as a protester is key to his defense, it seems.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, absolutely. And many legal experts across the spectrum have said that Lemon probably has a very strong case here, that the government has a weak case, and that it's going to be very hard for the prosecutors to prove intent in this case because, yes, there is a lot of video evidence. Most of that video evidence is coming from Lemon, from his YouTube live stream that everybody can watch. And there are already some very glaring weaknesses that are evident when you look at the indictment versus what was actually captured on the videotape. So, we will see if that plays out in court in the days, weeks or months to come.

Lemon certainly expecting a trial, but planning to vigorously defend himself. And we will see if these charges actually hold up and if this actually reaches the point of a trial. For Pam Bondi, for other Trump administration officials, this is a chance to stand on the side of churchgoers.

And Pam Bondi has been very loud and proud about that, appearing on Fox and other right-wing outlets, proclaiming the importance of defending religious freedom. I think that's something many Americans agree with.

And yet, the same First Amendment that protects religious freedom and the right to worship also protects the right of the press to freely report. So, this is very much a First Amendment tug of war.

And I would put this in the context of the many First Amendment stress tests that we've seen in the U.S. over the past year, whether it was reporters being hit by pepper balls and other kind of munitions in Los Angeles last summer, whether it's cases of reporters being harassed, being bothered for their work, whether it's now, in this case, two journalists who were streaming being accused of participating in the protests and violating the law. We continue to see these challenges by the Trump administration against journalists in many different ways.

And we heard today from 'Reporters Without Borders,' one of the organizations that usually advocates for journalists in repressive regimes, that mostly defends journalists who are working in other countries, not the U.S. And here's what Reporters Without Borders said in advance of Lemon's arraignment.

The group said, quote, "Prosecuting journalists is the desperate tactic of authoritarians and delivers a sad commentary on the Justice Department's deeply misguided direction. The courts have repeatedly told the Trump administration, it cannot criminalize journalism and we expect them to do so again here. Pam Bondi should save everyone the trouble and drop these ludicrous charges."

So that's a statement from Reporters Without Borders heading into today's arraignment, the start of what could be quite a lengthy process for Lemon. And again, a real test for prosecutors to see, can they actually prove intent in this case?

SANCHEZ: Brian Stelter, thank you so much for that update.

Let's get some analysis now with First Amendment lawyer, Katie Fallow. She's also the Deputy Litigation Director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Thank you so much for being with us, Katie.

I wonder on the FACE Act, does the First Amendment protect people's religious freedom from interference by private individuals or only interference by the government?

KATIE FALLOW, FIRST AMENDMENT LAWYER: So the First Amendment only protects the right to exercise free religion and engage in free speech and it protects it against interference from the government. The FACE Act itself does create a crime where the government can charge if someone is physically blocking access to a church or the main point of the act is against clinic entrances, or using intimidation or force to interfere with the right to engage in religious practices.

SANCHEZ: I just want to let our viewers know that, right now, the arraignment of Don Lemon has begun. We have reporters in the room monitoring that.

[14:05:00]

I wonder, Katie, historically, has DOJ often tried to prosecute someone accused of interfering in a house of worship, if they are documenting that said interference?

FALLOW: Absolutely not. I mean, this is a really unprecedented set of charges being brought against both Don Lemon and another independent journalist, Georgia Fort. And I can't think of a similar case in the United States where the DOJ has tried to prosecute in recent or any kind of history. And it is extremely alarming for the government to bring these very serious charges against journalists merely for the act of covering these protests. And as was mentioned in the introduction during his live stream, Don Lemon said repeatedly that he was there not as part of the protest, but as a reporter covering those events.

And that's a really important principle in our constitutional system, is that the press provides access to the public to really important events. And both the courts and the Department of Justice have historically recognized that. And the Department of Justice in the past has refrained from bringing any kind of coercive act of subpoena or arrest charges against journalists merely for the act of engaging in news gathering or reporting.

So, I think this is extremely unprecedented and alarming and is also part of the Trump administration's really broad attack on free press rights.

SANCHEZ: The administration is arguing in part that Don Lemon was aware that something was going to happen at the church, that he was there with protesters before they went in. It doesn't seem like you buy that that in any way changes his First Amendment rights.

FALLOW: Yeah, I don't think it does. I mean, obviously, what the government is going to need to do is to prove that he was either intentionally trying to interfere with access to a church under the FACE Act or was conspiring with others to violate the civil rights of the congregants in the church. And just based on what I've seen, I don't think that they can make out that.

They can't prove that in a court of law, because just the fact that he knew that the protesters were going into the church, I don't think it rises to the level of culpability under the act. And I also think, you know, in a lot of cases, while journalists do have to comply with generally applicable laws against trespass or jaywalking. But, there's this long tradition of recognizing that when the press is covering, for example, protests, you might have to cross the street, break a jaywalking rule.

But generally, the prosecutors recognize that and they don't bring charges against journalists if they're engaged in a press function, which it seems to me both Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. So the arraignment again is underway. We have reporters in the room. We're going to get you updates from them as soon as it wraps up. Katie Fallow, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your perspective.

FALLOW: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: So we've been monitoring remarks from President Trump this afternoon at Fort Bragg. He just wrapped up. And as you can see, he has just walked off stage. Here is what the president told troops there about the capture of Nicolas Maduro.

Remember, Special Forces officers who took part in that raid in Venezuela, the president met with them shortly before taking the stage. Let's go ahead and listen to President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No other country on Earth could have done what we did. No other country has the weapons. No other country has the skill. No other country has the guts. And no other country has the extraordinary warriors that we have.

We have the best warriors in the world because you can have the greatest equipment. But if you don't have the warriors, the equipment doesn't mean much.

Last month, we proved this truth once again when some of our greatest soldiers right here to ever live, frankly, successfully captured the outlawed dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and brought him back to face American justice where he's now right now waiting. And that was an amazing night. People saw that. They've never seen anything like it.

You know, it's a pretty military country. It was a big base, one of the biggest bases in South America where he lived. And it was in a matter of minutes before he was on a helicopter being taken out of there. They had to go through steel doors. The steels were like -- it was like papier-mache. You know what papier-mache is? That's weak paper.

These guys blasted through every door. They got up to him before he got to the big safe, but that wouldn't have worked either because they had equipment that was going to knock that out in a matter of minutes.

[14:10:00]

But he never got there. It went so fast. Think of it, in a matter of minutes, when people realize what happened, they're looking up, and there's the helicopter heading back to the aircraft carriers.

So that night, the entire world saw what the full military might the U.S. military is capable of. And that was an unbelievable operation, but that was a smaller operation. But it was so precise, so incredible.

Nobody thought a thing like that could happen. They even talked about the discombobulator because they never got a shot off. The Russian equipment didn't work. The Chinese equipment didn't work. Everyone is trying to figure out why it didn't work. Someday you're going to find out. But it didn't work.

It's nice when you can fly in and not get shot at. Although we did have three helicopter pilots who were wounded pretty badly in the legs, landing, and a couple of machine gunners seemed to have made it through with a thicket of bombs.

But they were taken out rapidly by our snipers who were stationed on platforms. Actually, unbelievable. Helicopter platforms all the way the line, and they were taken out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That is President Trump just moments ago speaking at Fort Bragg about the capture of Nicolas Maduro. We have Colonel Cedric Leighton now to give us some perspective on this. It's notable the president lauding U.S. forces and their work, talking about the fact that there were no casualties.

No one was seriously injured in an operation that took really only a few minutes and had a very high degree of difficulty. Nevertheless, one that sent a message not only to adversaries around the world, but also to U.S. partners in South America.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah, absolutely, Boris. It's interesting because we've had a long history of conducting special operations missions in South America, not necessarily in Venezuela, but certainly in Mexico or Colombia. And one of the key elements that was part of that effort was, of course, the counter drug effort. In the 90s, we helped the Colombians get Pablo Escobar, who was the big drug kingpin of that time with the Medellin Cartel.

So, there is a lot of history that goes back when it comes to the capabilities of Special Operations Forces. Those capabilities were refined really in the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis, further refined during the counter drug missions in Latin America, and then they've clearly reached an apogee in terms of the technical capabilities in the Iraq war and now, of course, with the capture of Nicolas Maduro. They basically showed how quickly they could conduct a takedown like this and a capture of a senior leader.

SANCHEZ: I also wanted to ask you about some of President Trump's remarks more broadly because we were watching when he first took the stage attacking Democrats, as he routinely does. It reminded me of the last time he was at Fort Bragg last summer. He made a speech in which he repeatedly attacked his predecessor, Joe Biden, and there was applause from some members of the audience, you would assume members of the military.

That is unorthodox, right? It goes against the historic decorum, not only of the people that are watching the speech, but also of the president himself. I wonder if you could speak to that dynamic.

LEIGHTON: Yeah, sure. There is, you know, it's very interesting. Take a look at, for example, State of the Union speeches where the joint chiefs are sitting in.

SANCHEZ: They never clap.

LEIGHTON: They never clap. No matter what the president says, even if they totally agree with it, it's stony silence. It's kind of like the Supreme Court justices as well, in that particular setting.

When you go to a military base, when the president goes to a military base, the dynamic is a bit different because you're dealing with younger troops to a large extent, and they may not be necessarily as steeped in the tradition as more senior people are when it comes to maintaining kind of a political neutrality.

But at Ford Bragg, when he was there the last time, President Trump was there the last time, yeah, it was pretty clear that some decorum was definitely broken. And we have, quite frankly, fairly partisan people in charge of the Pentagon as well as obviously the White House.

So it's a bit different than the dynamic you had, say, with Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was a retired General, when he became the Secretary of Defense under the Biden administration. So the way in which the audiences reacted seemed to be a bit more muted in this particular situation. But, it's pretty clear that when you look at the dynamics of politics within the military, it is a fairly conservative group on average.

That has changed a bit in recent years. It's become a bit more open to different currents in American political thought. So both parties can benefit from the military vote. There are a lot of Democratic veterans in Congress, for example. So the military is kind of a neutral setting, it should be a neutral setting, and it seems to be moving back in that direction at this particular point in time.

SANCHEZ: Colonel Cedric Leighton, always appreciate the analysis. Thanks so much.

LEIGHTON: Thank you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Still to come this afternoon, the desperate search for Nancy Guthrie, now almost in its second week.

[14:15:00] The clues officials hope will narrow their investigation, including new details about the suspect seen on this doorbell camera video. That and much more coming your way in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We're now at Day 13 of what "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie and her family have called their nightmare. And while officials today say they are following good leads, where 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie is and who allegedly took her is still a mystery. The FBI says they're looking for a male suspect, someone around 5'9" to 5'10", with an average build.

The FBI is also describing the backpack seen on Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera as a black 25-liter Ozark Trail hiker pack.

[14:20:00]

Let's get some analysis now from former FBI Profiler, Gregg McCrary. Gregg, thank you so much for being with us. How helpful could these new details about the suspect's height and the backpack be?

GREGG MCCRARY, FORMER FBI PROFILER: They can be helpful because they begin to rule out certain people, people taller or shorter than that. But it's the totality of the circumstances that's going to really help put together a good focus on a viable suspect. The height, the weight, the backpack, the gait, the way he moved there, but also thinking about the post-abduction behavior as well.

That he'd be very consumed with all this, his normal routine would be broken, all those sorts of things that we would look at to try and eliminate less viable suspects and focus on the main one. Also, pre- offense or pre-abduction behavior, if he'd done reconnaissance in the area, which I think they may be looking at. They now ask for a video from a two-mile radius, so that suggests they may have a car or something they're looking at to try and pin down. So, it does seem as though the net is tightening here on this.

SANCHEZ: What about the timing, Gregg? Does it surprise you that we're getting this description a full two days after the video came out? In other circumstances, when similar footage is put out and police are looking for someone, I feel like these details come almost simultaneously. There's often a press conference, and that didn't seem to happen here.

MCCRARY: Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I think they wanted to be sure. I think that's what was going on with that white tent. I think they were doing a 3-D laser capture of that scene, which would allow them to more precisely get the height of the individual. So, I think it's important to make sure we get the proper information out there rather than the wrong information.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, that's a fair point. Speaking about getting the right information out there, there were conflicting reports regarding some of the DNA evidence that was collected. Initially, there were reports that the Pima County Sheriff didn't want to share the evidence with the FBI.

They deny that. I wonder what you make of that in the course of this investigation. It has to be something frustrating for investigators.

MCCRARY: Yes. Hopefully, we're not dealing with this interagency rivalry that sometimes occurs. In a case like this, you need to have a clear command structure. Who's in charge? Who's going to be doing what? Working jointly together. I've worked on these cases in the past where FBI agents would cover leads along with local or state authorities. We would work together.

Many times, there's called an MOU, a Memorandum of Understanding, in place before a major crime so that we don't have to figure it out on the scene. We show up and you know who's in charge and who's going to handle things. So hopefully, any rumors and stories about dysfunction between the agencies, hopefully that's wrong because that just complicates the investigative mission.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, no doubt. When you hear the Pima County Sheriff, Chris Nanos, say that they're working with good leads, what does it take for a lead to be good? What is it that makes one promising?

MCCRARY: I think when it begins to come together, it's what I'm talking about, the totality of the circumstances. They may have some suspects they're looking at. They may have a vehicle. They may be putting the vehicle in the area and looking to complete that. They may have cell phone data. They may have all that sort of data coming together to begin to really tighten it down and focus on it.

So, I think that's probably what they're referring to when they talk about good leads or substantial leads.

SANCHEZ: Gregg McCrary, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your expertise.

MCCRARY: You're welcome, Boris. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course, and we do want to put the number up one more time on the screen. Anyone who may know anything about the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie is asked to call this number. You can call the Pima County Sheriff or you can call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Still to come, that au pair who helped plan the murders of Brendan Banfield's wife and another man learns her fate. The emotional speech from one of the victim's family members inside the courtroom today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:29:03]

SANCHEZ: As global leaders gather in Germany and brace for a contentious Munich Security Conference, some European leaders are agreeing with the new U.S. view that the international world order no longer exists.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio warns that we, quote, "now live in a new era of geopolitics," saying the old world is gone. His comments highlight the growing divide between the United States and Europe under the Trump administration. Germany's chancellor issued his own warning to the U.S. about the dangers of abandoning the transatlantic alliance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: Even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. Dear friends, being a part of NATO is not only Europe's competitive advantage. It's also the United States' competitive advantage. ,So let's repair and revive transatlantic trust together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)