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Laura Coates Live

Search for Nancy Guthrie Continues; Emails Reveal New Details About Bill Gates's Ties to Epstein. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 05, 2026 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, SALEM RADIO HOST: -- bathtubs. Nobody needs a bathtub unless you've had your kidney removed and they're putting you in a tub of ice. Straight to hotel jail. Dim lights that you can't find the switch for.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Oh, so agree.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

JENNINGS: Straight to hotel jail. And finally, closets that contain safes and ironing boards where you can't hang up your clothes. How am I supposed to hang my jacket up in there with your harpsichord sitting there? I don't need that.

(LAUGHTER)

Give me a closet with nothing in it. All of these things.

PHILLIP: All right.

JENNINGS: Straight to hotel jail.

UNKNOWN: You don't iron as soon as you arrived at the hotel?

PHILLIP: The airing of grievances --

(CROSSTALK)

Thank you very much. Thanks for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good evening. I'm Laura Coates. Nancy Guthrie's family is waiting. They are hoping for any sign, any word that she is safe. The first deadline from unverified ransom note sent to multiple media outlets, that has now passed. The FBI confirmed in a news conference today it was set for five o'clock. Right after that time passed, Savannah Guthrie's brother, Camron, issued this plea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMRON GUTHRIE, SON OF NANCY GUTHRIE: Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven't heard anything directly. We need you to reach out, and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward. But first, we have to know that you have our mom. We want to talk to you, and we are waiting for contact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: It was just last night that Nancy's children released their first message asking for proof of life. And now, we have some contacts as to why they're putting out these videos. TMZ got one of the ransom notes. And Harvey Levin, TMZ's founder, is revealing new information about what it says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ FOUNDER, RECEIVED RANSON NOTE: The letter says, you will have no way of contacting me. This is the only contact. So, that's why they're pleading for proof of life, that's why they are begging, because they have no idea how to get in touch with this person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: We also now know why these notes are getting so much attention even though law enforcement still isn't publicly confirming if they're even legit. It has to do with what they say about specific items at Nancy Guthrie's home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEVIN: They do mention an Apple watch, as the FBI said, and they do mention the flood light, the damaged flood light. There is something else, and it is the placement of the Apple watch, which has not come out. And if that placement is accurate, I'm sure that is something that puts this letter on the FBI's radar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: And that second deadline I mentioned, the FBI says the second deadline is Monday. Harvey Levin tells us the note indicates that that deadline is much more consequential. Police insist they still have no suspect or person of interest. But we did learn this: The blood that was found on Guthrie's front porch belongs to her.

And the timeline of what happened is getting clearer. Guthrie took an Uber from her house to her daughter's home at about 5:32 p.m. on Saturday. She was dropped off back at her house at 9:48. Now, fast forward four hours, and we're at 1:47 a.m. on Sunday, the doorbell camera disconnects, a doorbell camera that's now missing. The camera software detected a person on camera at 2:12 a.m. But the software didn't retain the footage. And at 2:28 a.m., Guthrie's pacemaker app, it lost connection to her phone. And it was just before noon when her family got home and went to her home and reported her missing.

So, here's where we are: There's no suspect, there's no proof of life, no indication whoever took her will make contact again, and about four days until the second more consequential deadline. And remember the urgency here because Nancy Guthrie is 84 years old and has now been five days without her medication.

The sheriff says the reward for information that gets her back is now $50,000. And he urges for help, but also for hope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS NANOS, SHERIFF, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: People are always asking. Do I believe she's alive? Absolutely. Absolutely. There's nothing to say she isn't. And so, we have to live on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Tonight, we have a team of reporters, law enforcement experts covering every new aspect of this case. And believe me, there are many. We begin with Briana Whitney, who was outside the Pima County Sheriff's Department tonight. She was actually at the news conference earlier today. She is a reporter with Arizona's 3TV and CBS 5 and host of "True Crime Arizona Live."

[23:05:00]

Briana, you were the one who asked that very key question that got the FBI to reveal that there were actually deadlines listed in the ransom letter. So, tell me, what is your understanding of how law enforcement is evaluating the contents of the letter tonight, especially since that deadline has now passed?

BRIANA WHITNEY, REPORTER, ARIZONA'S FAMILY: Yes, it was really, really important that we got that piece of information because that's going to tell us really how they're going forward with deeming whether this ransom note is legit or not. So, eventually, the FBI special agent in charge said the first deadline tonight at 5 p.m.

We know that that has since passed, and it was right after it passed that Savannah Guthrie posted another video with her brother this time pleading with the abductor to come forward and contact them with more information.

We know that the second deadline is sometime on Monday, but the FBI didn't go into detail at what time that is and what more of a demand the person is making. They did say it is very unusual that by this point in time, if they receive a ransom note, that they wouldn't have had any contact with the kidnapper or the abductor or any sense of communication with them.

This is really odd. And so, if Monday passes and there still is no communication, still no proof of life, then I think that's when the FBI will look at, is this credible? Probably and possibly not.

COATES: That's a big gamble if you're the family, to think about all those factors. And one of the big questions that we had when we last spoke just last night was, why was there so much new activity at the home yesterday? What have you been able to learn?

WHITNEY: Yes. That's something that I asked the sheriff today, too, because we were all wondering that. They had seemingly processed the scene. He had told us that. And then, all of a sudden, you had crime tape going back up and you had agents bringing out new pieces of evidence. So, I asked him, was there something specific that made you guys go back out there? Did you get a new tip or new lead and you needed to go, investigate inside the home again? He said, for the most part, they obviously want to make sure that they got everything.

But because there's so many agencies that are part of this investigation, including the FBI, the FBI wanted to then go into the house and see everything based on what they know at this point in the investigation.

Now, he didn't go into detail as to what exact evidence was taken out of the home. We can assume that whatever was taken out, they're doing possibly DNA testing on, they're looking at, you know, any sort of evidence that they could get from that.

But when asked about, well, why did you close down the scene and allow family and media and neighbors to walk up to the door and walk all over there, and then, you know, have it, you know, for a lack of a better word, a crime scene again? You know, he said, Monday morning quarterback.

Yes, the sheriff's department should not have opened that scene back up. They probably should have kept it secure because you do have other agencies coming in who want to see for themselves what's in there. And if there's other evidence to be collected, they want to be able to do so.

But I asked the sheriff. I said, so you could have a contamination of the scene then now. And he said, you know, we'll leave that up to the courts to decide.

COATES: Briana Whitney, now a Monday deadline. Thank you.

WHITNEY: Thank you.

COATES: Now, let's turn now to former Navy SEAL Commander and hostage working group coordinator for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, Dan O'Shea, also former NYPD hostage negotiator Wally Zeins. Glad to have both of you here because, Wally, I want to get your read on these two deadlines in the alleged ransom note. Why do think they gave these two separate deadlines spaced several days apart?

WALLACE ZEINS, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR, NYPD: Well, you got to understand first important thing in any hostage negotiation, you're not going to -- you have to have another person to talk to. You have to have the good guy and the bad guy. And if you don't have another person to talk to you, you have no negotiating going on. And that's one of the problems you have here.

And when you talk about deadlines, you know, you can bring up the point to them, is that, hey, you want bitcoins, we have to go get bitcoins, we have to do this in relationship to work with a bank, we have to work with having it shipped. So, the deadlines can be moved from our part if we have a conversation. You must have two people. You can't just be talking to yourself. And that's the way that works. In relationship to the crime scene, what you mentioned, it's very common to go back to a crime scene. We always expand a crime scene when we get more information and more evidence to follow through. So, that's something that is a common practice.

In relationship to that crime scene, they should always keep it taped off. And one of the other things in relationship to that is anyone who walks into that crime scene now, we always take their name, their shield, and what command they come from so we have a steady roster of everyone that's coming into that particular area.

[23:10:05]

COATES: I'm sure that becomes an interview list at some point in time, too. Dan, I want to pick up on this idea of the ransom notes in particular and the idea of, look, you can't negotiate with yourself, but I do wonder if that's precisely the point here because Savannah Guthrie's brother, Camron, appeared in the new video message tonight asking for the abductor or abductors to reach out because the note has no contact information.

The way that Wally is describing it is a question of leverage, right? You have no leverage to negotiate if the person will not communicate with you. Is that the precise motivation of the person who's asking for the money?

DAN O'SHEA, FORMER NAVY SEAL COMMANDER, FORMER COORDINATOR OF HOSTAGE WORKING GROUP AT THE U.S. EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD: Well, as was pointed out by my colleague previously, you need two people to be talking to make a deal. Right now, the ransom demands have gone to media networks. There hasn't been a direct correlation. There hasn't been a proof of life provided by the kidnappers proving they actually have Mrs. Guthrie in custody, that she's still alive and that she's still good.

And that's where we have the point that, are they really motivated by money? I think they might be to the point that they're ideologically- driven. They're consuming the media that's driven on this case with the deadlines, with the focus of the U.S. president, with the head of the FBI.

The entire nation is focused on this case, but they are not acting in good faith in doing this negotiation. So, you have to wonder what do these deadlines really mean. Are they just ratcheting it up for the news media focus or are they really trying to make a deal to get Ms. Guthrie home to her family?

COATES: You have to wonder about that. Another third way to look at it, though, is that they want a purely transactional connection here, and they have no interest in being persuaded, which tells me maybe a different sort of criminal profile that we'll look at later on in the show as well.

Wally, TMZ's Harvey Levin says that the ransom note included something that has not been publicly reported yet, the placement, apparently, of Nancy Guthrie's Apple watch. Does that make it, the letter, appear to be more legit, in your view, if there is something specific that they can chew over in law enforcement?

ZEINS: Well, that's -- that's very important. You know, when you talk to the individuals, if you ever get that conversation where you start to negotiate, first of all, the negotiation starts off, as mentioned, they want to see if Nancy is still alive or they want to have some indication that she is there.

And, you know, keep in mind one thing. You know, A.I. is a big product now that we have a lot of dealings to deal with. I mean, they can take a voice and put it in A.I. They can make a picture and make it like a movie in A.I. But you have to be able to beat that system, too. So, if they did do something like that, you would want them -- you would want to have some sort of indication like, tell me, what's my mom's password in case she has a problem or what did she get us for Christmas three years ago? That would throw A.I. off right away.

But in relationship to the contacts, what's going on inside, you have to look at the letter that was sent or the email that was sent, and you have to go with the premise that it is real until you can disprove it. And that's a very important part of the whole case. There are little things that come in there that no one else knows about. And they will come and bring that specific thing up if they have, in fact, found something that has to do with the letter and inside the residence of Nancy.

COATES: It certainly explains why law enforcement would want to be a little bit tight-lipped, Dan, about what they're releasing to the public, so they can confirm different details like that as opposed to giving everyone the whole enchilada, so to speak. Let me ask you, Dan, how do you get someone to communicate in this situation who is not offered a way to communicate, who is not followed up, who is not providing proof of life? Is there a way to draw them to the table?

O'SHEA: Well, again, I believe that they're violating the rules of how this business is played. If it's truly a kidnap for ransom, they're going to negotiate it. Just like every major deal, you do things behind the door to get the deal on the other side and you make concessions, but you don't want to publicly admit to what you did. And the fact that they're not showing good faith, they haven't given proof of life, they're negotiating through media outlets, TMZ is a gossip channel, and they're sending a ransom demand to a Hollywood gossip channel.

So that's where I have concerns, that they're driving this and they're putting it on the public and the timeline because, obviously, the sensitivities about her age or her medication and her health. So, I believe these abductors are not acting in good faith, and that's where I think the focus needs to be.

[23:15:01]

They're not playing by the traditional rules of kidnap for ransom. You need to look at what are the real motivations. Is it ransom or is it something else?

COATES: You have to wonder. I'm glad TMZ, at least, has something to work with for the family and, hopefully, they're going to be able to move the needle. Dan O'Shea, Wally Zeins, thank you so much.

I want to get to criminologist now and behavioral analyst Casey Jordan. Casey, I have been -- the nation has been riveted by this, trying to figure out the type of person that would do something like this. And I know you've been thinking about it as well. I mean, authorities are saying that her doorbell camera was disconnected, was taken. Combine that with the fact that there is no stated way to communicate with this person or people. What does that tell you about the kind of person who would have done this?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST, BEHAVIORAL ANALYST: Whoever is responsible for this, and it's more likely to be at least a pair of people than a singleton, it could even be a group, as Wally pointed out, but --

COATES: Why?

JORDAN: They're operating from a position of power right now. And some of that could just be like smoke and mirrors, if you will. So, we look at the motive, OK? First of all, they have opportunity and they have the skill to do it. But the skill set for somebody who abducts would usually be different than the skill set for a cybercriminal who's all interested in the bitcoin. This could all be wrapped up in one person, but more likely a team. The --

COATES: Hold on. Casey, tell me for a second. The difference between somebody who'd be a cybercriminal versus somebody who'd be an in- person abductor, what is the distinction?

JORDAN: OK. You just -- it's not impossible for them to be the same person. But, generally, you are going to have at least one person to abduct or somebody to drive the car, somebody to be in charge of the communications. Somebody who knows how to get that bitcoin transferred is usually not the same person who muscles an 84-year-old lady into a car. And it just is easier when you have kind of a division of labor.

But, I mean, the bottom line is they're operating from a position of power that they don't really have because they haven't provided proof of life. And that alarms me a little bit because they may have started from a position of power where they had Nancy alive.

And if that is no longer the case and they can't provide that proof, they have some choices. They can bluff their way and hope that the family pays money without proof of life or they can just abandon the entire catastrophe and go off into the sunset because communication greatly ups the ante of them getting caught, and they know that.

So, at this point, number one, we're not 100 percent certain that this ransom demand is legitimate. They could just be really good at guessing and that art of probability. It's clearly enough to make the police believe it's legitimate. But, you know, who knows where the Apple watch was? Let's try on the nightstand. I mean, at some point, it could just be an opportunistic person, a hoax who is just clutching at straws and getting lucky. And it could be the true abductors.

But if that is, if they are out there and we are dealing with that communication, and with that we have Savannah's video last night and her brother's video today, we should hear from them. If they are profit-motivated, they are going to get in touch. But if they do that after saying, this is the last time you will hear from us, then that gives the Guthrie family and the police the upper hand. So, right now, it's just a chess game.

COATES: Unbelievable to think about how a family cope with something like this. The idea of the gamesmanship when your loved one's life is on the line.

The ransom letter, where it was sent is really perplexing to many people. You just heard one of our hostage negotiators, experts talking about it being sent to local outlets, sent to TMZ, not directly to the Guthrie family or even Savannah Guthrie's employer. Right? She's a very visible person. You know where she works. I would assume one would go to there. But it seemed not to have. What does that tell you?

JORDAN: It seems not to have, and yet it's possible they tried and that email got lost in the hundreds of thousands of emails that probably came through to NBC when this happened.

I just -- I'm not a hundred percent convinced that they didn't try. It would be kind of hard to get directly through to Savannah unless you have her direct email to start with. You'd be going through other channels. And if that isn't -- I mean, it was three days before this surfaced. It makes me wonder if they did attempt, but for whatever reason, that attempt to reach the family failed, and then they went with the news outlets as plan B.

But it does not really fit with all of the other sophistication they've demonstrated. I mean, let's admit, they're succeeding so far. No footprints, no tire tracks, no video.

[23:20:00]

They got that ring camera off. I mean, this is why I think they have some division of labor, and maybe some people on the team are falling down.

COATES: Certainly, reconnaissance at the very least in advance. Casey Jordan --

JORDAN: Yes.

COATES: -- thank you so much.

JORDAN: Good to be here.

COATES: Up next, millions in bitcoin? That's apparently what the ransom note is demanding, a demand that would make the perpetrators harder to trace and track. But could it also provide some clues? You know what? I'm going to ask a former top FBI cybersecurity expert. And ahead, one of Nancy Guthrie's neighbors is speaking out on the door- to-door search for information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEVIN: The markers of -- showing that it's real. The bitcoin address, we checked immediately, and it's a real address.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:25:02]

COATES: That was Levin tonight revealing the financial request in that alleged ransom note for Nancy Guthrie. Bitcoin, he says. Levin also says the letter was emailed to TMZ. It was also emailed to two local stations in Arizona.

I want to talk with Eric O'Neill, a top cybersecurity expert and former FBI counterintelligence operative. He wrote "Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers." Well, perfect person to talk about this. Let's talk about the letter that apparently was asking for millions in bitcoin. Many people think that means it is automatically untraceable. Is bitcoin truly untraceable?

ERIC O'NEILL, FORMER COUNTERINTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE, FBI: Well, bitcoin is cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is part of an open public ledger. So, you can actually see where that bitcoin addresses that wallet and any transaction that go in and out.

And that give the FBI, in particular, a very excellent avenue to start learning who owns the wallet because, at some point, when you take money in cryptocurrency, you have to turn it into cash. Otherwise, it's worthless. And that means you have to go to some sort of exchange or peer-to-peer network or turn that cryptocurrency into a stable coin, a coin that can be tracked by law enforcement. So, at that point, there's an ability for law enforcement to determine who owns the particular wallet that is holding that bitcoin.

COATES: How about for the email? Because it was provided, no contact information, but it was emailed to those media outlets. Could that provide some sort of lead in figuring out who sent it? How do you track that back?

O'NEILL: Yes, certainly, Laura, because email has metadata. Email has to have an origin. An account has to be created. And then it has to move through servers. So, for a normal person, it's difficult to hide where the email is moving through the internet, right? It's going to touch servers, and those are points of access for the FBI.

You would have to be incredibly sophisticated to know how to use dark web and the Tor network. And that's a level of sophistication that may be beyond just a basic kidnapper. And even if you have that sophistication, you have to do every communication right. You can never make a single mistake. Otherwise, one law enforcement can key on you.

COATES: There's no communication yet other than the ransom note, none that we're aware of. I wonder, in terms of trying to track in the way you described, the family to provide some small amount of money that essentially has a tracking device of sorts on it at that point to figure out where it would go in the conversion scheme?

O'NEILL: Well, what they could do is put some money into the bitcoin -- in bitcoin into the wallet, right? Into the cryptocurrency wallet. But if the kidnappers, and we're assuming that there are kidnappers and that this is a legitimate ransom note, are savvy, they're not going to let it sit, and they can just let it sit until they either get more of the money or they decide to communicate.

COATES: How long is that process, to try to track?

O'NEILL: Well, it depends. What they're going to do is they're going to try to track it as soon as it lands, and then moves. And the trick is they're going to watch it and see where it moves, either into a criminal network that they understand and they can try and seize or into a legitimate banking network because, at some point, the criminals are going to try to actually turn that cryptocurrency into cash that they can spend.

COATES: And then the footprint is clear. Eric O'Neill, thank you so much.

O'NEILL: Thank you.

COATES: Much more on our breaking news ahead. Up next, Nancy Guthrie's neighbor speaks out on the door-to-door search for information. Plus, her cellphone in police possession. Why it could be key to providing some very critical investigative information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Have you been actively door knocking the neighbors and businesses and collecting those doorbell cameras and is there anything that has come up there?

NANOS: I can't tell you whether things have come up or not, but we have door-to-door. I think we're still doing door-to-door not just in that neighborhood but other neighborhoods.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: The sheriff today making it quite clear officers will do everything they can to search for clues in the neighborhood Nancy Guthrie was taken from. And that includes even going door-to-door. But earlier, the sheriff told CNN's Ed Lavandera that the location of Guthrie's home, it has made obtaining video evidence pretty challenging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NANOS: It's not very well lit. And I just -- when I got there, I thought it's going to be really difficult to get ring cameras. These are homes that are set back on probably five acres of land, several acres of land, and the vegetation from the roadway to that home is pretty thick. So, we knew those challenges were going to be there, but we've faced those before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, my next guest knows that location very well. He is one of her neighbors who lives walking distance from her home. Tom Pew joins me now. Tom, thank you for being here. This is pretty unbelievable and I'm sure hitting very close to home. You heard the sheriff saying that they're still going door-to-door. Has law enforcement made it to your home, Tom?

TOM PEW, NEIGHBOR OF NANCY GUTHRIE: No, they haven't, but I have heard from other -- all the other neighbors that I know that they have gone door-to-door. I'm sort of on the peripheral of the immediate proximity to her house. So, I expect they'll be here.

[23:35:00]

I think you probably heard earlier that there have been a lot of helicopters over here for --

COATES: Yes.

PEW: -- search and rescue. And, you know, the organization that I'm a member of, the communications person, Catalina Foothills Association, has sent email to 1,500 homes or so urging everybody to also completely cooperate with the police and to offer any information they may have that has not been normally discovered through the police method so far.

COATES: I certainly hope you're able to do that around the community. I mean, some people, they don't know your community very well. They're making a lot of assumptions that these homes would have elaborate security or surveillance systems and be able to see what's happening at others' homes. Is that the case? Was the neighborhood concerned about crime before now?

PEW: Well, yes, I think there's ordinary effort to prevent ordinary crime in our neighborhood just like in most neighborhoods today. And people do have surveillance. They are alert there. It's a very supportive -- supportable -- supporting -- self-supporting neighborhood where the people take care of each other and look out for each other.

But, Laura, you've got to admit, this is such a strange one-off crime. You know, I've been watching your program up to now. You know, as everybody has noted, it -- I mean, I can't speak to the criminal nature of this thing, but the fact that there are no tire tracks and that it clearly must have taken more than one person and that there's no trace so far in spite of my association's effort to encourage people to keep looking and the sheriff, FBI, I don't sense that there's a falloff in our normal attention to security.

COATES: Are you finding that people are more afraid now? I mean, it's just the nature of this. Do you feel as though you are afraid of this, threats to your greater community?

PEW: You know, it's difficult. I guess every person must be reacting to this slightly differently. I don't -- I don't -- personally, if you're asking me that question, I feel this is such an unusual crime that it seems unlikely that it will be repeated or that they're -- you know, surely, there aren't people traveling around the neighborhood in vans waiting to abduct 84-year-old women. It has a strange nature about it.

COATES: Indeed. And we're exploring that more and more. Tom Pew, thank you so much.

PEW: Thank you, Laura. Appreciate it. Appreciate all your staff has done and said to us out here. Really grateful. Thank you.

COATES: I'm glad to hear that. I'm grateful for you to be on today and share. Awful.

PEW: Thank you.

COATES: Thank you so much. Today, you know, the sheriff reiterated that technology is going to play a crucial role in trying to crack this case. And the FBI actually gave some more information about how exactly they're doing this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEITH JANKE, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI: We are actively reviewing and analyzing information from all digital sources, which includes banks, social media companies, phone companies, and any other organizations where a digital footprint could have been captured. All this information provides data points and helps put the picture together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, I'm joined now by Jeff Bennett. He's a retired FBI special agent who actually specialized in analyzing cellular data to try to solve crimes. Well, Jeff, describe what are the capabilities the FBI would have when it comes to locating a missing person or a suspect using the cellphone data?

JEFF BENNETT, RETIRED SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: Yes, there has been a lot of talk in this case about DNA evidence. And when we talk about cellphone evidence, it's really like electronic DNA for our lives. And so, when we look at the cellphone evidence, it represents who we are. It is just like DNA in our blood. It's where we go, it's who we talk to, it's what time we get up in the morning, it's when we go to bed at night, it's if we speak to somebody new, it's if we stop speaking to somebody in our life. It represents who we are.

So, if we can exploit this data, especially in this case, we may be able to determine if there's a piece of information that may be valuable in this case. If there was somebody that was speaking to Nancy, that could be of value.

[23:40:00]

Additionally, we can identify her locations through those cellphone records. She, through the records, we can identify where she had been. We can -- we can map those records. We can identify geographically where she went, when she went there. We can also look at who went with her. We can geographically identify what other devices were there.

And we can attempt to detect a pattern. And if that pattern, if there are devices over time and distance that are suspicious, that is something we would look into. And that is something that we often used, myself and my partners, in whodunit cases like this is along with the LAPD and South Bureau Homicide. Whodunit cases are often solved using geofence cellphone evidence.

COATES: Well, let's talk about something I did see today. There were images of law enforcement at the home, and they were carrying Cellebrite cases.

BENNETT: Right.

COATES: What do those do? And does that tell you the direction of what they might be looking at?

BENNETT: So, yes and no. Cellebrite is just a computer that mirrors a cellphone. It also mirrors and copies deleted or obfuscated files. So, it just copies a cellphone, quite simply. There's nothing more than that. But it's not to determine that somebody is a suspect, but rather possibly to rule somebody out.

COATES: Interesting.

BENNETT: That's another thing that cellphone records can do, is we get the cellphone records possibly for family members so that we can confirm their stories. So that when we look at their records, we can confirm their fact patterns are consistent with their independent cellphone records.

COATES: Digital alibis. Really quickly, I know, Jeff, we have no time, but we've been hearing from investigators that Nancy Guthrie has a pacemaker, and this is interesting, that was disconnected from her cellphone. Many have been wondering whether that could possibly be tracked. Could it?

BENNETT: Well, it depends on how that cellphone was built. Generally, they are radio frequency established. They're radio frequency connected to a base station. The best way to think about a pacemaker is kind of like an air tag. It needs a device, whether it's a cellphone or a base station, to kind of springboard the information to a host.

COATES: Jeff Bennett, thank you so much.

BENNETT: You're welcome.

COATES: The reward for any information that helps find Nancy Guthrie is now $50,000. If you know anything, can you please dial 1-800-CALL- FBI or contact the local sheriff's department at 520-351-4900.

Up next, President Trump says the country should move on from the Epstein files. But in the U.K., royals are being toppled, prime ministers are apologizing, and criminal investigations have begun. Why this stark contrast? Gloria Allred weighs in.

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COATES: You know him as a longtime philanthropist and obviously the Microsoft co-founder. But now, Bill Gates is facing new scrutiny over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A CNN K-File analysis found hundreds of references to Gates in the latest trove of Epstein files, interactions after Epstein's 2008 conviction of prostitution-related charges, including an unsent draft email from Epstein to himself that claimed he helped Gates get drugs -- quote -- "in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls and illicit trysts with married women" -- unquote.

Now, Gates vehemently denies any wrongdoing and has never been charged with anything related to Epstein.

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BILL GATES, BUSINESSMAN, PHILANTHROPIST: Every minute I spent with him, I regret and I apologize that I did that.

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COATES: Melinda French Gates says the billionaire has a lot to answer for.

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MELINDA FRENCH GATES, PHILANTHROPIST, AUTHOR: Whatever questions remain there of what -- I don't -- can't even begin to know all of it. Those questions are for those people and even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me.

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COATES: My next guest represents over 20 Epstein survivors, most of whom have been Jane Does for many years. Famed victims' rights attorney Gloria Allred joins me now. Gloria, as you see, Bill Gates is facing scrutiny in the court of public opinion. The U.K. seems to have a very different approach. You've got a royal strip of his titles, the prime minister apologizing for a former ambassador's ties to Epstein, a criminal investigation. Why the distinction between what's happening in the U.K. compared to what has happened here?

GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS' RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, as they say, this is what democracy looks like in the U.K. And many of those individuals, as you mentioned, Andrew, formerly known as Prince, and the former U.S. ambassador as well, did associate with Jeffrey Epstein. And then the question is, since they are both high-profile individuals involved in politics or royalty or formerly the royalty, they're going to get a lot of scrutiny. And they deserve to have quite a bit of scrutiny.

[23:49:59]

And then, you know, the spiderweb increases and some political figures may end up finding that they have to pay the cost as well if they associated with or commended or caused to be appointed the people who were associating with Jeffrey Epstein.

This is a tale of power, money, sexual abuse, and people who were trading information for other kinds of assets. And it's a tale of accountability. This is good for survivors because some people, at least, are having to pay the consequences.

COATES: What does that accountability look like for the survivors that you represent and work so closely with because here, there has been -- in the U.S., there has been a kind of a resurgence of the "Me Too" movement. You've got associates like the former treasury secretary, Larry Summers, chairman of the top corporate law firm at Paul Weiss no longer in their positions. Is that the accountability that the survivors are asking for?

ALLRED: Well, it's some accountability. Unfortunately, right now, they are paying huge consequences, the survivors, because of the lease of their names, their photos, often their driver's licenses, emails, texts, DMs to Jeffrey Epstein and some back, and texts, and a lot of personal and intimate information, including some of the names of their witnesses, which they had provided to the FBI, Homeland Security, and prosecutors.

And, as a result, many of them are getting harassed, they're getting bullied, they're getting threatened, they're getting defamed, they are emotionally suffering from all of these. It's worse than anybody can imagine. And they all wanted to be -- and were Jane Doe for so many years. And now, because they fought for the release of the files, their names are out there and they're suffering.

COATES: Are you suspicious of the fact that those redactions did not take place?

ALLRED: I'm sorry.

COATES: Are you suspicious that those redacted names, they were not redacted? Are you suspicious by the fact that they did speak up and now, voila, Jane Doe no more?

ALLRED: You know, I can't rule it out. Why are they being punished? They didn't do anything wrong. They are victims, they are survivors, and yet they are the ones who have been exposed while certain male, potential sexual predators, are being protected.

I mean, after all, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, announced, when he did the last dump of millions of files last week, no men are going to be prosecuted. And then there appears to be an over-redaction of many of the men and/or the communications they sent. Why is that? And why are millions more files not being published?

This is -- you know, this is a very serious situation. Why? I think we know the answer if all these files are not being published. And we have to get to the bottom of this.

If he thinks that we're moving forward as we know the president said that we need to move past that, lot of survivors, Laura, are not willing to move past this because they're still suffering from it. They still have not won justice. They are still fighting for justice. They are fighting for truth. They want to know the whole truth, nothing but the truth. And they want to know how this could have happened. They know their own truth.

But what about the big picture? Who was paying? Who was assisting? Who was enabling? Who was supporting? Who was co-conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein? Even some of the co-conspirators that were named in 2008, their names are redacted in the files.

So, you know, they're going to continue to speak out, and they are going to seek justice now more than ever because now, they've been punished, they've been exposed, and it's just not right.

COATES: Gloria Allred, thank you.

ALLRED: Thank you.

COATES: Up next, so much ahead for the weekend. Ahead in the halftime hype, Bad Bunny, excited for his halftime show. Is Elex?

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COATES: It's almost midnight here in Washington, which means it is time to toss this over to the West Coast. Hi, Elex. I know you hear that music. It is Bad Bunny's hit, "Baile Inolvidable." Yes, I know the words. He is speaking out today about his upcoming performance. Take a listen.

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BAD BUNNY, SINGER: It's going to be fun. And it's going to be easy. And people only have to worry about dance. I know that I told them that they had four months to learn Spanish. They don't even have to learn Spanish. It's better if they learn to dance. But I think there's no better dance than the one that comes from the heart. You know, the heartbeat dance. That's the only thing that they need to worry about and have fun and enjoy it.

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COATES: Well, Elex, you'll be there with CNN's coverage. Tell me, did you -- did you learn either Spanish? Are you prepared to dance with your heart? What are you excited to see?

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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I know a little Spanish. But, yes, I'll be dancing.

[00:00:00]

Yes, we'll be there. We're actually doing a post-game show from the field.

COATES: Really?

MICHAELSON: Andy Scholes and myself at 11:00 Eastern, 8:00 Pacific time. So, we'll be doing all the wrap up, including talking about Bad Bunny. What are you most excited about and what snack are you most excited to eat during your home Super Bowl party?

COATES: I am very excited. I'll be having the buffalo chicken dip, nachos, and maybe some coquito, you know. Have a great show, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Sounds good.