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Law Enforcement Expected To Release Photo Of Potential Subject In Guthrie Case; Commerce Secy. Lutnick Pressed On Epstein Ties In Senate Hearing; Lawmakers Question DOJ Redactions In Epstein Files; FBI Releases Photos Of Possible Subject In Guthrie Case. Aired 12:30- 1p ET

Aired February 10, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:34:24]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to Inside Politics. We are following breaking news in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. We're waiting for the FBI to release an image of a potential subject at Guthrie's home.

I want to go back to Tucson where Jake Tapper is standing and reporting from outside of Nancy Guthrie's home. What's happening at this point? What are you hearing from your sources, Jake?

OK, we're having some audio issues with Jake. We'll get back to him as soon as we can. In the meantime, let's go back to our law enforcement experts, Andy McCabe and Josh Campbell. I believe you are there?

[12:35:08]

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: I got you, Dana.

BASH: OK, great. Andy -- or Josh, I think that's your voice.

CAMPBELL: Yes.

BASH: What else did you want to add about this as we wait for this image? And just to recap for our viewers, what the -- this is according to NBC News, what the FBI is going to release is an image from a camera at Nancy Guthrie's house showing a person who appears to be wearing a mask and carrying a backpack or tools.

CAMPBELL: Well, so a couple things here. I mean, we obviously talked about how potentially positive this development could be. There are also some potential challenges here that is worth discussing. That is, obviously, if you have someone who is on that image wearing a mask, that obviously making it, you know, much more difficult for someone to perhaps immediately try to identify that person, especially someone that maybe didn't know this person personally.

But we have seen cases where you did have suspects that were out there that were masks that were eventually caught. So the hope is that, you know, that this is actually -- this actually leads to a positive development. But authorities will be scouring everything that's in that image.

What type of backpack potentially was this? They go so far as to try to, you know, research where they're sold, what outlets and retailers might be selling those to include the person's clothing. And so a lot of that happening in the background, that's obviously an important step to try to get that out in front of the public.

Obviously, always better to have some type of video that you can actually see, that people can look and say, well, I recognize how that person moves their gait and the leg. It sounds as though this will perhaps be just a still frame picture. So again, obviously a positive development to have that, but just noting, you know, some of the potential challenges as authorities try to appeal to the public.

BASH: All right, Josh and Andy, stand by for one second. We do have Jake now in Tucson. Jake?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Dana. So yes, I mean, one of the things that's been so difficult, especially for the Guthrie family, but also for law enforcement officials, is just the lack of leads, of credible leads. It remains uncertain to this day whether those two ransom notes that were sent to local media here in Arizona and also to TMZ, whether they were credible at all.

I think there remain questions about whether or not the individuals who sent those last messages actually were the kidnappers actually abducted. And we saw the first three messages that Savannah Guthrie and her family delivered via social media were to those kidnappers. And then, of course, yesterday afternoon, that message, that plea from Savannah Guthrie to the public.

Right now, what we have is we're waiting any minute now for the FBI to release an image. As NBC News has reported, it appears to be an individual wearing a mask with a backpack and supplies. And this would be -- and we'll obviously ascertain it in its seriousness and how helpful it is once we see it, but this would be the first bit of hope for the Guthrie family, for law enforcement and any sort of actual credible lead as to who did this horrific thing, who came to this house behind me in the middle of the night two Sundays ago and abducted this 84-year-old woman who has difficulty walking.

We know that she left the house early in the morning because her pacemaker, which was connected to her phone, which was left behind, stopped connecting around that time. But other than that, there has been just so little information about --

BASH: Yes.

TAPPER: -- who might have done this, let alone why. So this would be the first bit of information that provides some hope for the family.

BASH: Yes, much, much needed hope. Jake, don't go too far. I just want to bring in our colleague Brian Stelter, who has been reporting on the story from the beginning as well. Brian, what are you hearing from your sources close to the Guthrie family and then at the network where she works? BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, we have been talking in recent days about the Guthrie's being in close touch with the FBI, being able to benefit from the federal resources that have come into Tucson, even as high as President Trump promising all of those federal resources.

My sense is that the last two hours or so, the family was informed of this new development. They were told the FBI is going to be sharing this image, and I don't know if they're still waiting to see it like the rest of us, but certainly this just developed in the past couple of hours, at least for the family to be told that there is this possible break, this possible bit of new information.

But this all underscores, Dana, just how limited this have been, how little we've all been able to know, and that's true for the family as well, how little they have been told because it has been so difficult to get images related to this case. And of course, it raises a question about the cameras, about the next cameras, about the lack of a subscription.

People who have their own security cameras at home know that you usually have to pay extra money every month to have a subscription to get the material saved in the cloud. In this case, (INAUDIBLE) not saved to the cloud. And so it's possible there's this single image coming from the camera at the time it was turned off.

[12:40:16]

BASH: All right, Brian, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

I want to go quickly to Andrew McCabe, former deputy FBI director. As you sort of absorb this information about what we're going to see, Andy, what else from your years of experience are you thinking about and are you looking for?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it's hard to put out of your mind the quality -- the question of the quality of the image we're going to get, right? We don't know if the image was taken. We actually don't know if the image was taken from one of her ring cameras or security cameras that may have been taken from a neighbor's camera.

We don't know if it was taken at night, which would obviously make it harder to identify who's in it. We have a, you know, a very recent experience of having had fairly extensive camera surveillance of the January 6 bomber in D.C. walking to both locations where he placed his devices. And, you know, we were not able to successfully use those to identify anyone.

But again, this is the first and best lead that we know they've had in quite some time. It comes at a time when we know they've been, like, reinvigorating their investigations at both Ms. Guthrie's house and also at Savannah's sister's house. And so we know they're going back time and time again, likely looking for more and more things.

We know they're looking for DNA inside the house. That can be very tough in a home that's been lived in for decades and decades that people have lived in it, left, guests come and go, people who maybe work there come and go. So sometimes hard to extract a needle from that haystack.

But the good news is that the FBI and its incredibly dedicated men and women who work there, both agents and analysts and professional staff alike, are still dug in and are turning this terrible problem into something that's producing investigative leads. And so, you know, now it's up to us, it's up to the public to get eyes on all this stuff and particularly this image coming out.

And for people who think that anything in this image looks even remotely familiar to them, the way the person walks, maybe the -- their posture, maybe the clothing or shoes they're wearing or the mask they put on during that was captured in the photograph, really got to call in with every seemingly small piece of information.

BASH: Yes. And as you're talking, I'm thinking of instances where that worked. I mean, Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO, and even what happened at Brown University. That's another example of -- I mean, there we had some video, but even images help people sort of identify some familiarity in what they were seeing.

We're going to sneak in another quick break as we wait to see the image that the FBI is going to release. And this, of course, is according to NBC News where Savannah works. Don't go anywhere.

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[12:47:55]

BASH: Welcome back to Inside Politics. We are still waiting for the FBI to release the image that we're told is going to come of somebody who was walking near and around the Nancy Guthrie home and neighborhood. And as soon as we get that, and again, this is a big break because it's the first real break in this case that has been going on in a very heartbreaking way for 10 days. As soon as we get that, we're going to bring it to you.

But while we wait, we are going to talk about some other significant developments here in Washington. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is offering a new explanation about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein after lawmakers in both parties said he misled the public about his connections to Epstein.

Today in a Senate hearing, Lutnick recalled having lunch on Epstein's private island in 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: I did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation. My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple with -- they were there as well with their children, and we had lunch on the island. That is true for an hour, and we left with all of my children, with my nannies, and my wife. All together, we were on family vacation. We were not apart to suggest there was anything untoward about that in 2012. I don't recall why we did it, but we did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, Lutnick has not been accused of wrongdoing, but that lunch contradicts what he said about his ties to Epstein. Just a few months ago, before the files came out, he said in an interview in October that he had cut off contact with Epstein, who was his neighbor, and that was in 2005 after an uncomfortable interaction at Epstein's home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUTNICK: And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again. So I was never in the room with him socially for business or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn't going because he's gross.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:50:21]

BASH: My panel is here with me now. He did interact with him. He was on the Epstein boat, had lunch with him, according to this new testimony, for an hour. I mean, that could not contradict what Lutnick said just a few months ago anymore. And the question is, why?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: The question is why. And some of the ramifications of that are it goes to credibility, goes to the credibility of the Commerce Secretary, goes to the credibility of a cabinet member who has obviously had this information this entire time and didn't say it when he was asked in that interview.

And it also goes to sort of the broader ties between Jeffrey Epstein and President Trump. Again, no accusations of wrongdoing here. And yet a story that is not going away for this president, despite his very deliberate appeals to his public and his supporters to move on.

AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST": I think that's the problem here. I mean, for Lutnick, I mean, he likely is -- will stay in the administration because President Trump has been very, you know, hesitant of, you know, letting people go at this time. And he's always been the type to say, you know, just push forward when there are, you know -- well, not accusations, but when there's bad press, just push forward.

But I will say that this is a problem for Republicans, right? And I mean, because they are the party in power right now. And there is anger at all of these people in privileged positions who continue to have contact with Epstein. And too many of them have tried to kind of say, oh, I knew he was bad. Oh, I knew he was gross.

But it doesn't bear out in their actions. If you knew this man was so gross, why didn't you tell --

BASH: Yes.

RASCOE: -- anybody? Why didn't you do that?

BASH: And meanwhile, we have new information from lawmakers who yesterday went and looked at the documents, but in an unredacted way, though, some of the 3 million documents that they saw. And I want to play some of the reaction and explanation of what they saw from three of those members.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RO KHANNA (D), CALIFORNIA: Now, we did find information about some excessive redactions where there were six men in the two hours we reviewed who should not have been redacted.

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D), FLORIDA: Over redaction, dramatic over redaction. It looks like intentionally so.

KAITLAN COLLINS, ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: Are you willing to say those names on the floor?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R), KENTUCKY: Oh, absolutely, I am.

COLLINS: When?

MASSIE: If that will serve the survivors. If the survivors want me to, I'll do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, this is key for lots of reasons, but not the least of which is the question of justice for the survivors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BASH: And it's not just about their identity, but culpability when it comes to the law. And so we have just that testimony, if you will, from these members about what they saw, saying that there are men named that against the backdrop of what the FBI director has said and also Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, has said about further prosecutions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to besides himself?

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Himself, there is no credible information. None. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will say the following, which is that in July, the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, the, quote, "Epstein files," and there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody. (END VIDEO CLIP)

AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: So, you know, we're going to get into, you know, parsing the words of these Justice Department officials. You know, when we're talking about Kash Patel's testimony, he said there's no credible evidence that would lead to prosecutions.

Well, are the documents that we're now seeing that list these people as potential co-conspirators? Is that credible evidence? What kind of evidence was behind that? But I think what's clear is that this administration has repeatedly sought to basically talk about these things as if there just is not a whole lot of there there.

They didn't even allude to the fact that there were these suspicions, that there were these co-conspirators that were included in the draft indictment of Jeffrey Epstein back in the mid-2000s. They kind of wanted to just move on from this subject.

The problem is when you do that and the documents ultimately come out, the things that you said back then are going to be, you know, poured over. And of course, now we have Congressman Thom Massie, Republican of Kentucky, basically pointing to that Patel testimony and saying, I have questions about this. I have perjury questions about this.

[12:55:06]

And so that's something that we're going to continue to see as these documents come out, as we figure out what's in these documents. There's so many of them that we're still learning things. Those claims about what the investigations turned up are going to be at issue.

BASH: OK. OK, we now have the image that we were reporting on. This came to us via the FBI Director Kash Patel's social media feed. So this is the image that we have been hearing about from sources. And you see there, obviously it is at night.

Oh, there's another image. There are multiple images of somebody, an individual who is masked. It does look like they're wearing a backpack. So, it's just important to look at these pictures as -- and sort of take them in, because that's the whole reason why they're being released for the public to see them.

I want to go to our law enforcement experts, Andrew McCabe and Josh Campbell. Andy, as we look at these and hopefully we can just keep kind of scrolling through them, what are your thoughts?

MCCABE: Yes, Dana, this is way better than what I thought we were going to get. These are actually pretty good. I mean, obviously you can't see this individual's face, but you can see some distinctive clothing. You see the mask, the backpack. You see they're wearing black nitrile gloves.

In the second photograph, you can see the zipper on the front of his sweatshirt or jacket is actually reflecting the light coming off of the sort -- likely the camera. So that's like where those two like kind of silvery stripes are. That's like common reflective material. That's not something that you have like on every sweatshirt, but might be unique to this one.

You see that black kind of piping across the top of the sweatshirt. Also something someone might notice, this photograph also you can see what he has in his mouth there is like the light source. So that's likely a very small flashlight or pen light, people used to call them.

That's a common, you know, thing that people do and you're working on something small, you need a little bit of light. They'll put that in their mouth to be able to continue to use their hands. That's another kind of a behavior that somebody might recognize.

If this was your brother or husband or son and you had seen them do something like that before and you knew they had a sweatshirt that was similar to this --

BASH: Yes.

MCCABE: -- you know those are the kind of -- any one of these little details is very small and not necessarily identifiable. But when you put them together, you overlay them, that's when someone who knows this person, who look at some of these images and say, like, oh my gosh, I think that's whoever. And really that oh my gosh moment is what we're hoping for.

BASH: Yes. And Andy, I'm just going to get in here and give you a little bit more about what the FBI director said about these images as he released them. This is on his X account. He said that the -- I'm just going to read it, "That over the last eight days, the FBI and Pima County Sheriff's Department have been working closely with our private sector partners to continue to recover any images or video footage from Nancy Guthrie's home that may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors including the removal of recording devices. The video was recovered from residual data located in back-end systems."

He goes on to say, "Working with our partners as of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual," this is important, "showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie's front door the morning of her disappearance." Josh?

CAMPBELL: Well, this is chilling. I mean, you look at just the imagery, Andy mentioned the clarity which is going to be critical here. I think, you know, investigators always keep an open mind but there is a big question, you know, about why this person would have done something.

You look at how that person's prepared, what they're wearing. This is someone that is clearly appears to be coming there in order to do something sinister and not leave a trace. It makes no other reason why you would have those types of gloves on.

You'll notice he has a mask which we've seen in other criminals wear but this is a fool, you know, over his his head as well. Criminals are sometimes smart. If they know that's like something like a hair fiber could be left behind, they'll sometimes take these precautions in order to try to prevent any trace of their DNA from being left behind which certainly challenges law enforcement.

You see him holding his hand, his fist up there to the camera. We know from our reporting that the camera was actually removed and so this could be him seeing that and then, you know, trying to disable that camera. Thankfully because of the advancements in technology, authorities were able to go back and access some of this back-end technology in order to try to recover some of these images.

And now law enforcement is in full crowdsource mode. They want anyone who has any information obviously on who this person is to bring that forward. And they're all -- there have been all kinds of, you know, as I mentioned earlier, some speculation in other networks about, well, was this an inside job.

You could bet that these images were shown to the family members before they were released publicly to see if anyone recognizes who this is. And so now we wait to see if this is indeed the big break.

BASH: Yes. And just underscoring, this is a big development. What you're seeing are four images that the FBI director just released to the public on social media along with it saying that what we're looking at shows an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie's front door the morning of her disappearance.

Thank you to you both. We are obviously going to stay on this big development in this heartbreaking story. Don't go anywhere. CNC picks it up right now.