FBI: Person Appeared To Have “Tampered” With Guthrie Door Camera

24:37Law enforcement scouting the home of Savannah Guthrie's sister Annie and that surrounding neighborhood. Plus, new photographs and videos today of a person at the front door of Nancy Guthrie's home the morning she disappeared. Experts are standing by to weigh in. We're back in a quick second.

24:57This week on The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish. The Winter Fashion Week season is underway. There were shows in Milan and Paris. And then it all ends in May with Fashion Super Bowl, the Met Gala, which is the kind of event that you can't buy your way into. Like you actually can, as it turns out, because Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, they've literally been ushered to the front rows in recent weeks. Talking with CNN's Rachel Taschen. I cover fashion and style. Someone actually said that they thought Sanchez, who apparently is friends with the Kardashians, is actually pulling directly from that playbook of like how to reinvent your image and in a way upgrade it into this fashion status.

25:42That was actually in my piece that I wrote. Oh, wait. What? Let me check my notes. Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app. We're back live outside the Pima County Sheriff's Department in Arizona. Today, a major development in the urgent search for today's show anchor Savannah Guthrie's 84-year-old mother, Nancy. The FBI releasing six still images and three videos of a masked armed person, armed person, outside Nancy Guthrie's front porch. It's a huge set of clues that hopefully will lead to a breakthrough in the case. I want to bring in someone with some experience leading major cases.

26:23Jeff Halstead served as police chief in Fort Worth, Texas. Jeff, what stood out to you from the images the FBI released today from Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera? Well, first and most importantly, you can actually take the word professional off the list. This definitely looks like an amateur criminal. If you look at some of the video, there are some defining things here that can be digitized and enhanced. the jackets, the lining, the reflective material on the backpack, the shoes. But that holster is positioned in a very, very bad place. But it's a right-handed draw holster, and they'll do some enhancements on that weapon and possibly get a potential make or model of the weapon, which is really going to enhance the investigation.

27:09So let me ask you, so nobody can be expected to be an expert in everything. So the FBI at Quantico enhances the image of the backpack, enhances the image of the gloves. Do you then, do they then, or the local sheriff's office here, then go to somebody who works at L.L. Bean, somebody who is an expert at backpack, somebody who's an expert on gloves? How do you figure out exactly what kind of gloves, what kind of backpack? Here is what's really going to be critical in the next 24 to 48 hours. And the FBI, they're brilliant at this. Once they get this digitized and then the enhancements and then they release that, it's the speed of that information and then making sure they can start narrowing the focus of this.

27:57Keeping in mind at the same time, they're canvassing the neighborhoods. They're trying to grab other imaging, other vehicles and other items of evidentiary value. They're going to start piecing this together. And this dragnet is going to drastically start closing in on potential suspects. On the side, those imaging enhancements will help them start narrowing down and getting more public information. Once they elevate this reward, because Arizona is one of the best states for these anonymous tip lines, they're going to start having criminals turn on one another. And we've seen this many, many times in high profile cases.

28:34It took more than a week for investigators working with Google engineers to be able to recover these images from the camera. The camera had been disconnected. People thought the images no longer existed, but they did, thankfully, with the engineers at Google and the FBI. What does it say to you that the FBI decided to release these images shortly after recovering them? Yeah, I'm really proud of the work the FBI did. to thank, thankfully, they have this public-private partnership with our technology partners, because it is absolutely essential. You know, just a few days ago, we were worried, we in the law enforcement community, were worried that these images and these videos would not be able to be recovered.

29:16And here they are. Getting them out immediately elevates this case. It's going to generate a massive amount of tips. People are going to start calling in things such as the shape of the eyes, potential facial hair, the manner in which they walk. The manner in which suspects walk, their gait, their strides can be indicators for someone to say, hey, that looks like so-and-so or that reminds me of this person. And then that really elevates the priority of this intelligence to get assets on it and find out if it's valid or not. And we have seen recent investigations where images like these released to the public.

29:54In fact, images not as good as these released to the public helped break open a case. We remember the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk, I mean, yeah, and the alleged killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. Have you worked on cases where even an image not as good as the ones we got today helps break open an investigation? Absolutely. I remember we in Phoenix, PD, we had one serial murderer and a serial rapist tied into the same investigation. And the killer would take a memento from every victim. One ring broke that case. It got tips. We narrowed in on the suspect. And then once the tactical element is then deployed, we're going to get closure with the arrest very, very quickly.

30:43So, yes, these are very good images. I'm proud of the FBI. I'm glad they didn't hold on to this and get this out immediately because our media partners getting this out is going to drive resolution and a successful closure to this case. Is there anything that surprised you so far in this investigation? It's day 10 and we finally look like we have some sort of breakthrough. And anything that as an expert investigator has taken you, you know, by surprise? it's just heart-wrenching that nancy has not been found yet that i think that is weighing heavily on every human being that is working this case city county state and federal partners as well as the volunteer search crews and all others it's just so rare that it's a bizarre crime and then victims not located and you have to wait so long to get the quality evidence released that is very, very rare.

31:41And it's just, it really hurts so many people involved in this investigation. So continuing the hope, the optimism and prayers for this family to get successful closure is all we can do at this point. All right, Jeff Halstead, thank you so much. Appreciate your time and your expertise, sir. The video here has been major. If you think you recognize this person, if you think you have information that can help in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, call the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900 or call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. You can also reach the agency online at tips.fbi.gov. Much more ahead from Tucson as new details come in about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

32:24We're also tracking, of course, new details in another big story, The Epstein Files, what Donald Trump said about Epstein decades ago that seems to contradict what he has said more recently. Stay with us.

32:42And welcome back to The Lead live here in Tucson as we see the very first photographs and videos of an intruder outside the home of Nancy Guthrie on the early morning hours of February 1st, the Sunday that she disappeared. We're going to have much more from our experts analyzing these images and what many hope will be a big break in the case. But first, in the Law and Justice League, new documents released by the FBI detail what then-citizen Donald Trump allegedly told the Palm Beach County police chief some 20 years ago about Jeffrey Epstein. Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown, who has broken so many of the stories involved in this case, went through the three million documents and found that Trump told the chief, Michael Ryder, quote, thank goodness you're stopping him about Epstein.

33:30Everyone has known he's been doing this, unquote. The report adds that Trump told the chief to take a good look at Ghislaine Maxwell, labeling her Epstein's operative and saying she is evil, quote unquote. Now, this all contradicts what Trump repeatedly has claimed, that he had no knowledge of Epstein's activities with underage girls. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt was asked about this earlier this afternoon. Caroline, did he call the chief? 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.

34:11And that remains true. And this call, if it did happen, corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning. Not really. That's not what corroborates means. Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, who broke this latest story, joins us now. Julie, first, your response to what the White House said about your new reporting? Well, I don't think she really answered the question, quite frankly. I mean, you know, she said she did whether the call happened or not, so it doesn't sound like she checked with the president whether he had made this call. Ghislaine Maxwell repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination yesterday in this virtual deposition she did with the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors.

34:57Her lawyer said that she had the ability to clear President Trump and former President Bill Clinton, but only if she was granted clemency by Trump. Caroline Levitt was asked about this, too. Take a listen. I haven't spoken with him recently. Last time we did speak about it, you said it's not something he's considering or thinking about. Could you see Trump granting her clemency? And how do you make sense? How do you make any sense of him allegedly telling the police chief, Michael Ryder, that Ghislaine Maxwell was evil? And then years later, she goes to prison and Trump as president wishes her well.

35:38Well, I think different people are going to look at it different ways. I think that probably his supporters are going to look at it the way Carolyn mentioned it and think that he was basically saying, you know, that, you know, it's good you took him and you arrested him and I kicked him out of my club. And then he was sort of providing information much like an informant. I think other more skeptical people pointing to the comments that he has made pretty consistently about how he didn't know about these activities would say, since this conversation, this happened right when Epstein was arrested, it could have been a way to sort of get ahead of the story and say, yeah, I knew about it.

36:27And, you know, just to sort of cover your tracks. So Republican Congressman Thomas Massey revealed that one of Dubai's most powerful businessmen, Sultan Ahmed bin Suleyem, corresponded with Epstein and is the individual that Epstein had emailed about a so-called torture video. What more have you learned about this? Well, I've known for some time that there were a couple of victims who were sent that Epstein sent to the sultan. I've spoken with two of them. And they're afraid to come out because, you know, of this publicity. I mean, some of these victims have really been attacked, especially on social media.

37:13And they worry about, you know, here's a powerful man, you know, and they don't know what they're up against. So they have been unwilling to come forward. But this is even before now I had heard about these victims who had been sent to him and sent to him to have sex with them. some of the members of congress who were able to see uh documents epstein uh documents that were unredacted although many of them remained redacted and they complained about that left uh their left the justice department where they were let into a room and allowed to see these videos just utterly shocked even people who had been skeptical previously about the epstein files and all the attention to it, like Republican Senator Cynthia Loomis talking about this was a horrific child rape trafficking ring.

38:09There are individuals who need to be named who they saw their names in the Epstein files. What did you make of all that? Well, those of us who have been following this case so closely knew that this was a worldwide worldwide sex trafficking operation. And if you look at some of these emails that are contained in there, you could see that this stretches over the world that he had recruiters, some of the men, by the way, who were helping him recruit young girls and young women for his own, you know, his own sexual use, his own effort. But also, we know that he sent some of these young women to other people, men in particular.

38:58And we're starting to find, I think, more and more information as we dig through these files and they unredact them, which they should. So hopefully we'll get a better picture of exactly who was involved and who helped him. Julie K. Brown, she has an extensive substack called The Epstein Files by Julie K. Brown. I subscribe to that. She's also the author of a fantastic book on the subject. It's called Perversion of Justice, the Jeffrey Epstein Story. And I bought that. And I recommend both to you. Julie, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Back here in Tucson, new video and photos now confirm someone showed up at Nancy Guthrie's home early Sunday morning.

39:41An intruder armed with a gun, cut with a face mask. Our experts are analyzing these images and we're going to be right back with much more next.

39:54This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper, and we are live outside the Pima County Sheriff's Office in Tucson, Arizona. The lead tonight, the FBI released six still images and three videos showing a masked armed intruder outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the beloved mother of NBC News Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie, On the morning of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, which is now 10 days ago, the images were recovered from Nancy Guthrie's front door camera. You can see the person here, a masked, gloved individual carrying a backpack. You can also see a holster with a handgun around this person's waist, much more clearly in the video here.

40:39seeming to notice the camera, then going to pick up some plants from the garden to cover, grab the camera, which was disconnected at 1.47 a.m. on the morning of Nancy Guthrie's abduction. FBI Director Cash Patel says this video was recovered with residual data located in back-end systems. We know also that that was done with the help of Google engineers, Google, which owns the Nest camera company. NBC News reports that the Guthrie family was shown the videos and images before it was released to the public, and they do not recognize the person in the videos. Let's take a closer look now at the photos and videos released today and how investigators are hoping that these images can help them crack open the case.

41:25The FBI released six brand new still photos and three videos of a potential subject captured from the front door camera of Nancy Guthrie's home on the early morning she disappeared. Nancy Guthrie's daughter, Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, posted the video shared by the FBI and wrote, Someone out there recognizes this person. We believe she is still out there. Bring her home. FBI Director Cash Patel had said it appears the individual tampered with the camera, but these photos and videos were recovered through residual data located in back-end systems. The FBI says the bureau had been working over the last eight days to recover any footage from Guthrie's home after the recording devices had been removed.

42:06The reason why the break in the case was so significant today with the Nest camera footage recovered from Nancy Guthrie's porch is because it was thought that all that footage either did not exist or had been destroyed. And for the Nest cameras and Ring cameras and other security cameras of the houses around here, there is so much foliage like this that separates the houses from the roads and the houses from each other. None of it was any help at all. Let's break down each of the photos. Here in the first batch of photos that the FBI released, the first image shows a masked individual wearing gloves and appears to have a gun at the front of their waist.

42:44You can also see the straps of a backpack. The second image, the person appears to hold up a plant as if to block the camera lens. In the third image, the person is holding up their gloved hand to the camera. And the fourth image, the last from the first batch of photos the FBI released, you can see closer at the subject's eyes and mask. In a second batch of photos the FBI released, you can see the person's full body gripping what appears to be a gun at his or her waist. In another photo, you can see the build of the person right before the subject approaches the camera. The FBI also released videos showing the person approaching the door with his or her hand on the holster.

43:21After spotting the camera, the person tries to cover it. As they turn around, you see a backpack with no label. Then the person walks back to the entryway and bends over to grab something and appears to tamper with the camera. In the last video, the person approaches the door, looking down. You can see the person's gait, how they move. The White House today also weighing in. The president encourages any American across the country with any knowledge of this suspect to please call the FBI, who continue to assist state and local authorities who are leading this investigation on the ground. Let's get to CNN's Ed Levandera, who's also here in Pima County.

43:58He's outside Nancy Guthrie's home where Savannah Guthrie grew up, her childhood home. And Ed, this video and these images, it could be a break in the case. You would imagine that right now this is probably triggering a great deal of tips and leads coming into authorities here, not just in Tucson, but FBI investigators as well. So they're probably going through a lot of that. And we also know, Jake, this afternoon, shortly after those videos were released by the FBI, investigators are back out in the neighborhood, not too far away from where we are, about 15 minutes away, where Nancy Guthrie's daughter, Annie, lives, Savannah's sister.

44:39That is the neighborhood where Nancy Guthrie had gone to eat and have dinner with her family. They were playing cards, we were told, before coming back here to her house. So that was almost 10 days ago that all of that happened. And we understand investigators have been going through that neighborhood, canvassing the area, knocking on doors and talking to people. So we're trying to gather more information as to what exactly they're asking about and what they're looking for. And was it something that was triggered by the release of the videos that prompted investigators to go back there? I say that because we have seen over the last couple of days there's been kind of a constant stream and a constant presence of investigators going back to neighborhoods that have already been searched and researched and they're re-canvassing.

45:25So all of that work continues. But it's significant that this is happening just hours after the release of these videos, which have just been a monumental moment in this investigation. So we await word of just what kind of information, what kind of tips and leads this is generating for investigators in hopes that it could draw them closer to finding Nancy Guthrie. Jake. CNN's Ed Lavandera, thanks so much. I want to bring in right now CNN's Josh Campbell, who previously worked with the FBI, also joining us is Nick Barrero, a certified audio video forensic analyst who has testified as an expert witness in this field dozens of times.

46:03Nick, today FBI Director Cash Patel said the video and images were recovered from residual data located in back-end systems. Can you translate that for us? We know that Google engineers, Google owns Nest, which makes these cameras, was able to recover the data once the camera was disconnected and some of the recording devices were removed. How was this done? Yeah, so what that tells me is that the data was deleted. It was officially marked as deleted. That space that was being taken up by these files was available to be used, to be overwritten, but it just hadn't been overwritten yet. And that's why the search probably took an extended period of time, because they were sifting through all of this unallocated space on the servers, looking for these files that were essentially marked as deleted, but not actually overwritten yet.

47:06And Nick, what do you make of the Pima County Sheriff initially saying that there wasn't any video that existed because Guthrie's, she didn't have an active subscription to Google's video recording service. So she had the basic Nest camera, which shows you who's outside, etc., but it wasn't being recorded because she didn't pay the monthly fee. Yes, that would be the typical response from Google in a case like this. I think the only reason why these extreme steps were taken to recover this data was because of the high-profile nature of this case. Josh, the suspect arrived wearing a mask and gloves, but he was holding his firearm in a way that nobody who's ever carried a firearm would ever do so, because the discharge could hurt him or her.

48:05The person tried to attempt to cover the camera with their hand and then with plants from the front yard. What does that all add up to you? Well, the clothing is certainly interesting because it appears, as we've seen in past cases, that sometimes criminals will try to prevent leaving behind identifying information such as a fingerprint or a hair fiber or even skin cells. So he is fully clothed from head to toe. And, you know, that may have worked because we haven't yet heard officials say that they actually know of any identity. They certainly say that they don't have any suspects that are known to them right now.

48:43But the question about the covering up of the camera, that's one of the more clumsy aspects it looks like on this video of this entire case. That could suggest there wasn't a great degree of surveillance, reconnaissance that went in ahead of time. Because if this person would have seen a doorbell camera that's so ubiquitous now in this day and age, you would think that they would have brought something to obstruct that, not having to rely on flowers out in the yard in order to do so. So, you know, one thing we're also waiting to hear, Jake, is as far as the video access. We know that the person took the camera with them.

49:15That's what authorities have said. But we're waiting to see if there are any additional images that they are able to glean. You know, this has been a long process. That doesn't mean that there is an additional space that the company like Google would be able to search, you know, among its servers. And so although this is critical, critical information, we can only hope that there is maybe potentially additional evidence that we'll also get. Nick, what other types of data could investigators have recovered so far or might still recover? Is it possible? I don't know what kind of cameras Nancy Guthrie had in her house, but it's certainly possible that there were other ones that were there that were just not recording.

49:54What other data might there be? Sure. Because all of that is unknown, the FBI could be working on, like you said, an unknown number of cameras that were there. But the way that this came out throughout the day today tells me that they're actively working on it, right? The still frames came out first, and then we got a little snippet of video, and then we had a little more video. The way that's coming out is telling me this is almost happening in real time. They want to get as much info as they can as quickly as possible. So as the FBI is getting it, they're putting it out. And so I wouldn't be surprised to see more footage, more still frames, just more data coming later.

50:44And Josh, Savannah Guthrie posted on Instagram what we all hope is true. Someone out there recognizes this person. Officials say they're already seeing and hearing an increase in calls. The Pima County Sheriff's Office told me that calls have spiked. Their investigators are going through them right now. What stands out to you as key identifiers? Well, the main thing that we see is since we have actual video, you can see the movement of the individual, the so-called gate. This is something that investigators will do as part of investigation, the gate analysis. But they're putting this out to the public because they want all of us, members of the public, to do our own gate analysis and look at that video and say, you know, that person walks very similar to someone, the way someone I know walks.

51:28It's very difficult to try to hide or alter your gait, even, you know, with the greatest attempt to try to do so. So seeing that, I think, is critical. And then the last thing, Jake, is, you know, looking at that clothing as well. You know, we don't know if this was attire that the person had had for quite some time. Maybe they procured it for the sole purpose of committing this alleged crime. But that's the hope as well. Is there someone out there who has a friend, associate, a family member who has the same type of clothing or, for that matter, a retail salesperson who said, you know, there was someone in the store who was buying a mask and a jacket and these heavy pants?

52:06Again, anything is possible right now. We just want as many eyeballs on these videos as they can to try to spur someone to recall something that might be helpful. Nick Barrero, Josh Campbell, thanks to both of you. We really appreciate your time and your expertise. We're going to have much more on our breaking news in moments. I'm going to be joined by a former detective from the Pima County Sheriff's Department right behind me here for his thoughts on how this investigation has been handled so far and what kind of leads these new images could provide. Stay with us.

52:46And we're live in Tucson, Arizona. Jonah, we're right outside the Pima County Sheriff's Office, and we have brand new comments from a neighbor who lives near the home of Annie Guthrie. Annie Guthrie is the daughter of Nancy Guthrie, who also lives in the area. Authorities were searching her neighborhood earlier today. Nancy Guthrie had dinner at her house on Saturday night, the night before she disappeared. Let's take a listen to what the neighbor had to say. What's going on? You tell me. What were they asking? They want to see the outside of the property. Outside of the property, anywhere specifically?

53:24Outside. Just outside? There's an arroyo in the back, they were looking at that. What was it? An arroyo, a wash. A wash. Okay. Yeah. They ask you, like, if you see anything suspicious or anything? No. Is this the first time they've been by since all this sort of happened? There were a couple of FBI agents by five, six days ago, just for a question. Canvassing the area, I presume. Would they ask then? Name. Do you hear anything? I hear anything. Yeah. I want to bring in Kurt Dabb, a retired homicide detective from the Pima County Sheriff's Department. Kurt, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

54:07So we're in day 10 of this search. What does it say to you about this investigation that the public is just now seeing these images of a potential subject on the morning of the disappearance? Obviously, it took a while for the Google engineers to recover these documents. What do you make of it? Well, I think definitely that it has taken a while, but it's given the public a little bit of comfort, if you will, that this investigation just didn't stop. The work behind the scenes continues, and it's going to continue for the foreseeable future. As a law enforcement official, as a former law enforcement investigator, what's your response to these videos and images?

54:53What do you think? What stands out to you? Well, there's a number of things that stand out to me. The biggest thing is that this individual seemed to be extremely calm, cool, and collected. It doesn't look like your average, ordinary home invasion where people are coming in a house, breaking down doors, screaming, you know, with guns in their hands. This individual had a backpack that was full of some type of implements. It looked heavily packed, like it was a planned event. and then to try to cover up the camera. You know, he didn't have any burglary tools in his hands. What I'd like to know is how he got in the door, and I'm hoping that the FBI has more video than they released that is going to answer some of those questions.

55:47But he looked extremely comfortable. The sheriff previously said that there were no videos available from the home surveillance, home security cameras. You have been critical of the sheriff, Chris Danos. You disagree that he should have made that kind of statement publicly last week. What are your thoughts on that? Well, my thoughts on that are the fact that at the time, I don't think that they realized that there was video. I'm a little dismayed with having to go back and grab other cameras a couple of days later. but you know at the at the time that the cameras were discovered maybe that's what they believed that yep we don't have any video there was no subscription we'll hand it over to the technical experts and hopefully they'll be able to garner some information from that and thank god that they did the the the individual shows up you you note that he seems calm he or she seems calm wearing a face mask, wearing gloves, but also doesn't have supplies, as you know, to cover the camera.

56:55You'd think at the very least some duct tape or something like that would be available. Do you think this is somebody who's done this before? Do you think this is somebody who is working with someone else? What does your gut tell you?

57:12well it he could have been working and i say he because on one of the photographs it looks like you can see a mustache and part of the beard right in the mouth area of that ski mask um to me this is a pretty daunting exercise to go in and kidnap a nearly non-ambulatory 84 year old woman so i would think that there would be other individuals involved but as of right now we've just got this one, what appears to be male subject, carrying a handgun in a weird place, in a weird holster. So these are things that should stick out, hopefully will stick out to community members to hopefully identify this individual.

57:53Do you think, do you have faith in the community, whether it's Tucson, Arizona, or just the United States, that there's enough information in these videos, in these still images, that somebody will recognize this person and call 1-800-CALL-FBI? I think so. You have, you know, you can see the individual walking so you can look at his gait. I know the FBI has the ability to take measurements at the house and compare them on the video so they could get approximate height and possibly weight of the individual. This guy, it looks like he had on multiple gloves on his hands, something that I used to do and many homicide detectives do because we're constantly changing gloves after dealing with body fluids and DNA and stuff like that.

58:43So this guy definitely came planned. And I think, I hope, with the video that's been released, that someone in the country would recognize this individual. And you know what, Jake? If they're not able to within a day or two, they're not getting any good leads, hopefully the FBI has more video that they're able to extract and provide. But it'd be really interesting to see how we got in that front door. Retired Detective Kurt Dabb from Pima County, thanks so much, sir. Appreciate your time. Yeah, if you did. If you have any information about the person in the new photos and videos released by the FBI today, there are multiple ways you can alert authorities, and you can do so anonymously if you want.

59:23And if there's anything that makes you think that this is somebody I know, please call the Pima County Sheriff's Department. That's at 520-351-4900. Or you can call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. You can also reach the agency online at tips.fbi.gov. That's tips.fbi.gov. We're going to have more on our breaking news in moments, but we're also following another major story today. the White House defending a member of President Trump's cabinet after he was accused of lying to the public about his ties with Jeffrey Epstein. That's next.

1:00:07In our Law and Justice lead today, CNN has now confirmed that Casey Wasserman, the entertainment executive and sports agent, has dropped out of an NBC Telemundo speaking event in the run-up to NBA All-Star Weekend. Wasserman also heads the coordinating committee for the 2020 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Epstein files showed he exchanged messages with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator, in 2003. In one exchange, Wasserman asks Maxwell, quote, so what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit, unquote. Wasserman has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

1:00:46And 2003 is years before Epstein was named publicly as being under investigation for inappropriate criminal behavior with young women. Wasserman's agency has been losing talent, however, since the revelations that he's in the Epstein files emailing with Ghislaine Maxwell. most notably Grammy-winning singer Chappell Rohn, who announced last night that she was breaking ties with Wasserman's agency because of Wasserman. Another name facing questions over his ties to Epstein is Howard Ludnick, the U.S. Commerce Secretary. He spoke today on Capitol Hill after lawmakers from both sides of the aisle accused him of having misled the public about his ties to the sexual predator.

1:01:29I 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 it. 2012 is an interesting time because that was years after Epstein went to prison for inappropriate contact with a minor.

1:02:21Lutnick, of course, has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing, but the lunch he just described does not square with what he told the public just a few months ago before these files came out. Here is Lutnick last October describing Epstein, who was his neighbor in 2005.

1:02:41And 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 that guy was there I wasn't going because he's gross yeah see that's that's not consistent with having lunch with him socially Also today, revelations that Donald Trump called the Palm Beach County police chief in 2006, after the investigation was made public, to tell the chief that Epstein's activities with underage girls was well known in New York and Palm Beach.

1:03:29This, of course, flies in the face of the president's consistent assertions that he had no knowledge whatsoever of Epstein's sex crimes. CNN's chief White House correspondent, Caitlin Collins, joins us now. Caitlin, the White House press secretary was pressed on this new report this afternoon. What did she have to say? Yeah, Jake, obviously this is an interview or a conversation the president would have had with the police chief in Palm Beach about 20 years ago when this investigation was becoming public. It's something we learned about as a release of these documents, including a document that mentions this interview and the police chief's recollection of his conversation with then-candidate Donald Trump, obviously a mainstay in the Palm Beach scene.

1:04:12And the White House was asked about this today, Jake. And instead of the point that people have made that it raises questions about what the president knew or at least what he thought about Jeffrey Epstein at the time, they argued instead that it corroborates what the president has said about Jeffrey Epstein. Caroline, did he call the chief? 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.

1:04:45And that remains true. And this call, if it did happen, corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning. And she also argued there in that press briefing today, Jake, that it was time to move on from the Epstein story when she was asked about the Howard Lutnick inconsistencies on their own. Caroline Levitt said that he remains a treasured and valuable member of the president's team and then chastised the press for not asking questions about other topics, including the Dow reaching 50 ,000 last week. Obviously, Jake, it's safe to say this is still a story and still something that is going to be facing this White House amid questions about this.

1:05:22Part of what the president also told the Palm Beach police chief was about Ghislaine Maxwell. And according to the police chief in this interview, said that the president told them in the mid 2000s that they should focus on her and that she's evil. That also raises questions given it was his Justice Department, Jake, that moved her from that prison that she was initially being held in, where she's serving out her sentence for sex trafficking on behalf of and in collusion with Jeffrey Epstein to a lighter security prison that she's now in. Kaitlin Collins, thanks so much. Appreciate it. And don't miss Kaitlin on her show, The Source with Kaitlin Collins.

1:05:58Her guests tonight include Republican Congressman Thomas Massey. That's tonight at 9 Eastern, only on CNN. Investigators this afternoon were seen canvassing the neighborhood where Nancy Guthrie's daughter Annie lives. What could they be looking for? That's next.

1:06:20Our national lead now. We're live here in Tucson, Arizona, following the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie and a big break in the case. Earlier today, the FBI releasing six photographs and three videos of a massed intruder outside Nancy Guthrie's front door that early morning of her disappearance on Sunday, February 1st. Let's bring in former FBI Special Agent Michael Carrigan, who served as chief of the FBI's firearms training program. Michael, as you analyze these images, what sticks out to you? What do you notice? What would you be looking for? Well, what sticks out immediately to me is when the individual goes up to the front door, You know, he appears to pause, to look around, look down, looking for something to cover the camera, which is a little surprising that he wasn't prepared when he got there to either mask the camera or remove the camera immediately.

1:07:13It's almost like he saw the camera and then he kind of figured out, trying to figure out how to fix that, how to conceal the camera's view. So that's a little bit odd here. You'd think that somebody who planned this out would have been prepared for that. The FBI recovered these photos from residual data located in back-end systems from Google engineers working with the FBI. What are the next steps for the FBI now that they have these images? You know, I think, Jake, I think what you have here is they've got a lot of forensic information. By this point, a lot of electronic information, which these videos are part of.

1:07:51Now, whether they came up with this today, I would think I would tend to think they've had this for a bit. But I think what they've done is they pretty much run down all this information. And now by putting this out, they're really looking to include the public closer in this case through the media to get, hopefully, some more information flowing in. And by putting images of this person out there, you have the potential someone will recognize him or what he's wearing, some of the aspects of how he moves. that can spur some good investigative leads here that would hopefully result in a return of Ms.

1:08:27Guthrie. Following the release of the photos, investigators were seen canvassing in the neighborhood where Nancy Guthrie's daughter, Annie, lives. We know that Nancy Guthrie was last seen by friends and family the night before she disappeared. She went to Annie Guthrie's home, Annie and her husband. What do you think they were looking for at that property?

1:08:52You know, I think what they're looking for is other evidence. It's hard to surmise at this point, but the fact that they're looking at close relatives and friends is fairly typical in these cases. A little atypical that you'd go in and collect evidence. But I think given the high profile of this case and the exigency they have with this woman being missing for so long and the fact she is so frail and in real danger here, is I think they're probably approaching this by leaving no stone unturned. So, of course, relatives, they want to take a look, maybe looking to see if there's any blood evidence in any of those houses.

1:09:33They're just being thorough at this point. But if there is a larger strategy here behind the scenes, of course, we won't know that until the case is over. Because, again, they have to be very careful in how they proceed here because they don't want to put Ms. Guthrie's life in any danger. They know if she's taken, they have to walk very carefully and really control what information gets out there. Michael Harrigan, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We know that investigators were looking into multiple potential ransom notes in the Guthrie case, including one with a ransom demand in Bitcoin.

1:10:08Are there any more clues that law enforcement can get from that? We're going to discuss that next.

1:10:19And we're back live from Tucson, Arizona, outside the Pima County Sheriff's Office, following the major developments in the search for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie. Before today's release of these surveillance images showing a massed intruder at Nancy Guthrie's doorstep, law enforcement previously had been going into looking at another possible clue, an avenue for investigation, a ransom message demanding$6 million in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. CNN's Saskia Van Dorn reports now on the disturbing trend of crypto linked kidnappings around the world.

1:10:57A daring kidnapping attempt gone wrong. This attack last year on the daughter and grandson of a cryptocurrency executive stopped by a passerby who chased the would-be kidnappers off. It was a warning of what was to come. A string of attacks of the past 12 months. The latest this month, the targets, once again the family of a partner in a crypto venture. Attackers targeted a 35-year-old magistrate and her mother, eventually dragging the women into one of these garages. Then came the demand, a ransom to be paid in cryptocurrency and a threat to mutilate them both if it wasn't paid. They were able to take advantage of the absence of their captor to free themselves, to call for help, in particular by banging forcefully on the garage door.

1:11:47A passerby heard the sounds and helped free the mother and daughter. I just came to take my car when I heard women hitting and screaming. I opened the door and two women came out. They were a little dirty. I was happy. They said, thank you. A chance encounter that may have saved their lives. After their release, and it's important to say this, no ransom was paid. Police officers have made six arrests in this case, with one being a minor. So what is the crypto connection? And why are kidnappers increasingly demanding in Bitcoin or other currencies instead of cash? Some say it's the belief that crypto is untraceable, anonymous, a perfect vehicle for moving stolen money across borders without detection.

1:12:32It's very hard to spend the crypto on cities stolen because crypto works on a blockchain. And a blockchain is a public registry where everything is visible, Everything is trackable. Every Bitcoin transaction is recorded on a public ledger. Every movement of money leaves a digital fingerprint. Law enforcement can see it. Blockchain analysts can trace it. The reality is the opposite of what the kidnappers assumed. In the meantime, French authorities continue to confront a rising threat. Saskia Van Doren, CNN, Paris. Saskia Van Doren, thank you so much. Let's bring in Bezalel Eitan Raviv. He is the CEO of Lionsgate Network, which is a blockchain forensics and cryptocurrency recovery firm.

1:13:21So, Bezalel, thanks so much for joining us. We just heard about arrests made in a crypto-linked kidnapping in France. And you say cryptocurrency is not, contrary to popular opinion, not some untraceable payday that criminals might think. Explain why. because it's recorded on a public ledger and everyone can see it and it takes an expertise to trace it and recover it and this is exactly what we are seeing right now we're seeing it's cyber criminals enjoying the fact that few people speak the blockchain language and of course law enforcement is not enjoying this so much because they have neglected a lot of cases where crypto is the crime.

1:14:06And now we're paying the price. You also say just one simple transaction can provide useful data. What types of details can you learn from these transactions? There's a lot of data we can mine from just exposing the crypto wallet. So the moment we have the crypto wallet, we at TimesGate Network are able to trace and mine a lot of information and provide it to law enforcement officials. Remember that whenever you send a single cent or a million dollar, we can present evidence to its current location, even if it has been dispersed in millions of pieces. So effectively, if you are creating or generating a crime around and when crypto is involved, then you should know that we are able to trace it.

1:15:07We just need more effective law enforcement to take charge and supercharge the operation that they can do where we have no word, the seizure, the subpoena, all of the back end legal and law enforcement related operation. So let's talk about the Bitcoin wallet that was reportedly set up to receive the$6 million ransom demanded of the Guthrie family, although we still don't even know if the kidnapper is related to the person that did this ransom. Can you tell whether the owner of that Bitcoin wallet is located in the United States. What can you tell about that person? We can tell nothing about that person because we don't have the wallet address.

1:15:56The wallet address is cloaked and is at the hand of law enforcement agencies. So until we have the wallet address, there's no information or dialogue we can conduct. What we can do, if we had the wallet, we could have probed it by sending a single cent, which would basically reveal to us all kind of information that would reveal more than the suspect behind the scenes would have wanted. And this is something we're very eager to do. But again, we don't have the first sentence to complete the conversation.

1:16:31Bessalel Eitan, Raviv, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time and expertise. The trauma that the Guthrie family is likely going through every day that this search goes on, and we're gonna get to the emotional side of this harrowing case that's next.

1:16:54In our national lead, the nightmare images of a masked armed intruder at Nancy Guthrie's door in the middle of the night are startling and upsetting to us all. Joining us now to discuss is Sherry Botwin, a trauma expert and licensed social worker who's written extensively on healing from trauma. Sherry, I can't imagine what the Guthries are going through right now, though it must be conflicting emotions to a degree. They got the first break in the case in 10 days, but still that nightmare image. Talk about that if you could. That nightmare image is one they're never going to be able to get out of their head, but at the same time, there may be a little bit of hope because now at least they have a face and they can see something actually happen, and now they can focus on finding this person.

1:17:49For our viewers, the idea that this armed intruder can just walk up to the home of a kind 84-year-old woman with limited mobility makes them feel vulnerable. What advice advice would you give them as they're watching this horrific story unfold? For anyone watching this story, it is really important to understand and know what is happening. But for anyone that knows Nancy or loves Savannah and the siblings, to remember that it's okay to see the images. But once you've seen it, don't keep watching it over and over. you can't get those images out of your head and we're going to see them over and over because we really we want to find this person but you say to yourself I saw the image I saw what that person looked like now I'm going to do whatever I can to try and help even if whether it's somebody in the neighborhood or somebody that knows Nancy or people that are friends with Savannah and her siblings.

1:18:53It's about focusing on catching him and trying to capture the image, but not stay in the horror of it because it's absolutely horrific. These images will hopefully lead to identifying a suspect and potentially locating Nancy Guthrie. And we all hope, of course, she'll be returned to her home in a healthy and well-conditioned. Do you think that these images, as horrifying as they are, Or do you think that they might provide hope in some weird, twisted way? You know, it's not weird. I think that when you're experiencing this kind of trauma, you grasp at straws. They, for nine days, have not known anything about who this person is, where this person came from.

1:19:39The idea that they can have that image and say, well, now we know we're looking for somebody. There is hope in that. And there's no reason for them to lose hope because until we find out that there's no hope left, they need to stay connected to hope. And I think today for this family, even though I haven't spoken to them, I imagine that they are reeling and horrified. But I think that they also may feel a tiny bit of relief because maybe they're going to find out now what happened to her. yeah and hopefully she'll be returned to them safely sherry botwin thank you so much really appreciate it the video release here has been a major story and if you think you recognize this person seen in the image on your screen right now if you have any information that can help in the disappearance of nancy guthrie if that reminds you in some way of somebody you know please call the Pima County Sheriff's Department 520-351-4900 520-351-4900 or call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI you can also reach the agency online at tips.fbi.gov you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram and Threads and Blue Sky and X and TikTok at Jake Tapper you can follow the show on X and Instagram at The Lead CNN if you ever miss an episode of The Lead you can watch a show on the CNN app Aaron Burnett out front starts now We'll be right back.