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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

New FBI Statement In Guthrie Case; Savannah Guthrie Pleads For Public's Help, Ransom Deadline Passes; Bitcoin, DNA And More: The High-Tech Landscape In Guthrie Case; U.S. Olympians On Representing The U.S.; Pres. Trump Calls Olympic Skier A "Real Loser" After Athlete Expresses "Mixed Emotions" Representing The U.S.; Maxwell Says She'll Clear Trump & Clinton If Granted Clemency; Khanna And Massie Don't Rule Out Of Exposing Redacted Names Of Potential Co-Conspirators In Epstein Files; British Police Assess Claim Former Prince Andrew Shared Confidential Trade Information With Epstein; Miami Herald: Trump Told Palm Beach Police Chief In 2006 'Everyone' Knew About Epstein, Maxwell Was 'Evil'; Ransom Demands In Other High-Profile Cases. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired February 09, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: As one NBC source said to me today, we're all just taking this hour by hour hoping against hope for some glimmer of good news -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Brian, thank you very much and law enforcement, you heard the FBI tonight, you heard Savannah tonight asking anybody who has any information, no matter how far away from Tucson, anything as savannah said, please call the FBI 1-800-CALL-FBI. Thank you for joining us, AC360 begins now.

[20:00:35]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, the deadline is done. Hours after Savannah Guthrie plead for help from the public in what she calls her family's hour of desperation.

Also tonight, Bitcoin, doorbell, cameras, and DNA, the high-tech landscape the kidnaping cases unfolding in and how both sides of it cops and crooks alike are navigating it.

And later, the unredacted Epstein files, what lawmakers saw in their first day of seeing the documents without large portions blacked out. And what Epstein accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell told lawmakers today. We've just gotten the video and the pardon deal she's dangling for the President, and new details from the files about Britain's former Prince Andrew.

Good evening, the second of two deadlines has now passed and the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie nine days ago. Deadlines laid out in a purported ransom note from purported kidnappers who offered no proof of life that we know of, or any direct communication with Miss Guthrie's three children.

Just moments ago, the FBI issued a new statement on the absence of word, quoting from it now, "For more than a week, FBI agents, analysts and professional staff have worked around the clock to reunite Nancy Guthrie with her family. The FBI is not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers, nor have we identified a suspect or person of interest in this case at this time".

Again, that's the latest from the FBI just before air time. Meantime, this afternoon, Savannah Guthrie posted another video to her Instagram account, this time addressed to everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, CO-ANCHOR OF THE NBC NEWS MORNING SHOW "TODAY": Hi there everybody, I wanted to come on and just share a few thoughts as we enter into another week of this nightmare.

I just want to say, first of all thank you so much for all of the prayers and the love that we have felt, my sister and brother and I and that our mom has felt. Because we believe that somehow, some way she is feeling these prayers and that God is lifting her even in this moment and in this darkest place. We believe our mom is still out there. We need your help.

Law enforcement is working tirelessly around the clock, trying to bring her home, trying to find her. She was taken, and we don't know where. And we need your help. So, I'm coming on just to ask you not just for your prayers, but no matter where you are, even if you're far from Tucson, if you see anything, if you hear anything, if there's anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement. We are at an hour of desperation and we need your help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That is now four videos the family has put out. Two videos of Savannah with her sister, Annie and brother, Cameron, one video of just Cameron, and then the latest video of Savannah. Help is needed because as of today, police still say they have no suspects or persons of interest, none. Over the weekend, investigators searched the septic tank behind Nancy Guthrie's home. They say they'll continue the residences tonight and tomorrow

In addition, on Saturday, Savannah Guthrie had this to say to whomever sent the purported ransom notes to local media and TMZ since her mom's disappearance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

S. GUTHRIE: We received your message and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us and we will pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The ransom demand according to CNN affiliate KGUN, was $6 million by 5:00 P.M. today. CNN's Jake Tapper is in Tucson joins us now. Jake, is it clear to you at all why the FBI would put out that statement tonight, particularly the part about the absence of continued communication between the abductors and the Guthrie family?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": Reading the tea leaves, it just does seem as though the communications such as they were have not continued the way that the Guthrie family would have hoped. And when you listen to the rest of the FBI statement, as well as the Pima County Sheriff, it does seem that there is this consistent theme from the Guthrie family as voiced by Savannah earlier today, as well as the FBI as well as the local Sheriff's Department that they have no serious leads, and they really are just asking the public for help because the family and the FBI and the Pima County sheriff are in an hour of desperation, as Savannah put it, the rest of the FBI statement says, "Additional personnel from FBI field offices across the nation continue to deploy to Tucson," meaning they're sending more people here.

"We are currently operating a 24-hour command post that includes crisis management experts, analytic support and investigative teams but we still need the public's help".

[20:05:52]

"Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home. We need that person to share what they know." That's from the FBI.

And just a few hours ago, the Pima County Sheriff put out a note saying "... investigators have not identified any suspects, persons of interest or vehicles connected to Nancy Guthrie. Anyone who believes they had information that may assist investigators is asked to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Pima County Sheriff's Department emergency line 520-351-4900 or 88-CRIME."

Now look, on one level, it's distressing news because eight days into it, nine days into it depends when you start counting. They don't have any leads. They don't have any serious suspects and that's distressing. On the other hand, pleas for the public help in the past have proved fruitful if we look at the assassination of Charlie Kirk, putting out photographs led to the father of the alleged assailant convincing the son to turn himself in. Same thing with alleged killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO -- Luigi Mangione, their pictures have been put out there, and some workers at a McDonald's in Altoona Pennsylvania, realized who it was.

So, this has -- of course doesn't have photographs of the assailants or the perpetrators but lots of pictures of Nancy Guthrie, she's got to be fairly well-known face at this point for people watching T.V. for the last week. And as the FBI says, there is someone out there who knows what's going on someone other than the assailants because it is likely that someone close to them, or somebody who lives nearby has seen something.

COOPER: Yes, Jake Tapper, I really appreciate it, Jake, thank you very much. Joining me now is CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller, criminologist and behavioral analyst Casey Jordan, and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

John, I mean obviously, this latest video from Savannah Guthrie, is an appeal to the public, not to whomever may be involved in this. What does that say to you?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, here's what we know and what we don't know. We know there was an abduction. We know there was blood on the front steps. That's a strong suggestion that Nancy Guthrie may have been injured even badly as she was being taken. We know there was a ransom demand.

Here's what we don't know and that's how it figures into this message today. We do know there's a ransom demand, but we don't know that the people making that ransom demand actually have her. We have heard nothing about a proof of possession or a proof of life and we don't know ransom or no ransom, if that's the case, if that is something that they'll be able to produce, releasing her.

So, with all that uncertainty, I think what we're seeing now is Savannah Guthrie reaching out, saying while we're sorting through that we don't want people to think that something is going on behind the curtain with negotiators and ransoms and drop offs and returns, and that they need to stop looking. We're as lost now as we were before. We need everybody looking and the FBI statement, which basically supports her message, does it two ways, which is somebody may have seen or heard something that they should report if they're thinking of not reporting it, call it in.

But they also say, someone knows. Anderson, in all of these cases, in most of these cases, there is an accomplice who knew about the plan and decided not to take part. There's a spouse, there's somebody else. Theres someone who didn't just see or hear something. Theres someone who actually knows and messages like this from the family, messages like this that will invite empathy and could work.

COOPER: Now that the second deadline is seemingly has come and gone and there's been no more communications unless there's more communication can they make any progress unless somebody comes forward?

MILLER: Well, this is the this is the divide here, which is if they are not communicating, not giving a proof of life, not setting up a transfer of that person, maybe they're not real. And as for deadlines, if they're really in it for the money, the deadline is not going to matter if they think they're going to get paid. So, it's in their interest to either keep communicating and produce or to disappear because they're not who they say they are.

COOPER: Andrew, I know you've said this latest video doesn't strike you as a message that one would expect to hear from a family currently negotiating the return of their loved one. Is there a chance that investigators may have determined the alleged ransom notes may not be legitimate or could they be real but the family just hasn't had any additional contact?

[20:10:30]

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN, SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I mean, both of those are possible, but my strong suspicion is that at this point, having passed both of the deadlines having never received a proof of life or proof of possession, having also, as far as were aware, not received any details about what would happen if they paid before the deadline, right.

You need some sort of communication from the kidnapper as to where and how to recover your loved one if you comply with the demand. And so, I think it's likely that the investigators and the family have dismissed, at least for the time being the messages they've received from this person who has, as far as we know, has never contacted them. And, you know, and engaged in a two-way dialogue in any way.

And you know, there's a lot about that, that those messages that never really made any sense. I'm not surprised that it hasn't really resolved in returning Miss Guthrie.

COOPER: So, Casey, I mean, what strikes you about this latest message from Savannah Guthrie, that her appearance in the latest video, the message of it.

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST AND BEHAVIORAL ANALYST: Well, let's just start by saying the one that she and her siblings put out on Saturday was really dark. It was dire, they were holding hands. They were talking in cryptic language that suggested that they were grappling with a reality that Nancy may no longer be with us except in spirit. And today we see a different Savannah. She seems strong. She seems, if you will, angry, a little bit like we need your help.

She is exasperated and she may be exasperated not just with the kidnappers, but with the advice she may have gotten from law enforcement or the FBI. She seems to be doing this on her own, maybe in a back bedroom away from her siblings, and maybe they don't even know she's posting it. But you see her in that hour of desperation. It is an 11th hour, it is just hours before the deadline, begging people to call in with anything at all. I guess I would have liked to see her do this earlier in the week but I also see somebody who's deciding whether or not to push the send button on $6 million.

Given that she has, as we are presuming, no proof of life and there is no honor among thieves and kidnappers, and she could be paying this money with no guarantee that she will ever hear a thing again, right?

COOPER: Yes.

JORDAN: Why would we trust to return her, to return Nancy in any condition? So, I think that you were seeing authentic Savannah, and I liked it. And I think she's feeling stronger emotionally and psychologically. And given that we don't know what's going to happen next, she's going to need to continue that attitude.

COOPER: John, so if I mean, to Andrew's point, if maybe this whole thing isn't real, maybe those messages are not legit then why would somebody have taken Nancy Guthrie? I mean, if the if these communiques are not real and there's been no reach out, what does that say?

MILLER: Well, it suggests alternative possibilities. A home invasion gone bad, a burglary where they were surprised by someone who they didn't think was home something that lost control and turned into a murder and then that bridges to, is this an opportunist who saw it in the headlines, who decided to demand a ransom to see if somebody sent them millions of dollars? Or is this someone who may have been involved in that crime that night, who said, let me get the spotlight off of me or the people around me and push it to this kidnaping scenario.

COOPER: Given the time though, that she seems to have been abducted or taken, I mean there can't have been that much of a vehicular traffic at the middle of the night or 2:00 A.M. or whatever it was in Tucson, Arizona in this neighborhood, you would think there would at least be some video of cars that would be leads.

MILLER: You know the houses are far from the road, there's a lot of shrubbery.

COOPER: There's a Circle K nearby, I mean, you would think there's got to be some main roads well, they've been to the Circle K and they've been to the Circle K about a suspicious vehicle. And they've had a report involving a white van.

They've had a lot of tips that you know, aren't in this conversation because they're running those tips down. Any of those could play into one or more of these alternative scenarios or even the kidnap scenario. The point that that Andy McCabe makes is, you know without something that definitively shows us somebody has her they have to be open to every one of these possibilities which is why they're checking septic tanks and other things.

COOPER: John Miller, Casey Jordan, and Andrew McCabe, thank you.

Next, more on the role technology maybe playing the search for Nancy Guthrie's as well as the advantage some of it and will be discussing might be giving her captors.

Later, the Olympic sized eruption the President is having because of what this Olympian said about America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER HESS, U.S. OLYMPIC SKIER: It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It's a little hard, there's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of. And I think a lot of people aren't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:19:51] COOPER: Our breaking news, nine days since Nancy Guthrie was last seen in a new plea from her daughter, Savannah, saying the family believes she's, "still out there," pleading for the public's help. Her message came as a 5:00 P.M. purported deadline neared today in a ransom letter, according to local T.V. station KGUN.

Meanwhile, the Pima County Sheriff's Department says their investigation in the Guthrie home will continue tonight and tomorrow. They also revealed they've expanded their search, gave no specifics on that. CNN's Brian Todd takes a look at some of the high-tech tools they and the kidnappers may have at their disposal.

[20:20:24]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Guthrie case is a two- way battle in the technology sphere. The purported kidnappers are tech savvy too, something the Pima County Sheriff acknowledges.

What are they doing?

CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY SHERRIFF: Covering their plates, removing the camera, whatever it is, they know and so, it is a cat and mouse thing.

TODD (voice over): Officials say early on, Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera was disconnected and removed. Motion was detected on the camera's software but no video was available, apparently because Nancy Guthrie didn't have the required subscription. If the video isn't retrievable, one expert says one tool that could provide clues is touch DNA technology, which could be used in the area near the doorbell camera.

JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, FORENSIC SCIENTIST, JACKSONVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY, PROFESSOR: You're leaving behind dead skin cells and in that context were going to have access to a partial DNA profile, and they can actually create that and kind of amplify that to get an idea as to whose DNA this is.

TODD (voice over): Forensic expert Joseph Scott Morgan says authorities are also likely analyzing any data they can find from the connection between Nancy Guthrie's pacemaker and her cell phone or other technology, a connection that was severed in the early morning hours before her disappearance was reported. Other ways officials are casting a technological net.

JON EDWARDS, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: We're downloading and analyzing cell phones, obtaining cell tower information.

TODD (voice over): Surveillance footage is also crucial, experts say, to try to put together a video trail of the possible captors.

MORGAN: I think the bread and butter here are going to be RING cam, CCTV, anything that they can, you know, kind of pull in and they will have gone to, I would imagine just about every residence up and down that street and also places like churches convenience stores maybe a dry cleaner, anywhere where a car would have passed through that area.

Technology could also help investigators track the captors through their reported demand for millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Experts say that while you cannot immediately see who Bitcoin is being sent from or to the movement of funds on the Bitcoin network is still traceable. That trail becomes especially clear once criminals receive the payment and try to cash out by moving the Bitcoin through a cryptocurrency exchange.

ARI REDBORD, GLOBAL HEAD OF POLICY, TRM LABS: That is where ultimately law enforcement can send legal process or work with a compliance team and an exchange to block those funds and ultimately seize them back. It's also the place where you can get the most valuable information about the user behind that cryptocurrency address.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: But analysts say there really is a limit to how much technology can be effective in this case. Forensic expert .Joseph Scott Morgan says that investigators are still going to have to physically knock on doors, question neighbors, question fellow churchgoers, question everyone in Nancy Guthrie s inner circle, find out who had intimate knowledge of her comings and goings and who had motive. Technology, he says, simply can't help with some of those answers -- Anderson.

COOPER: Brian Todd, Brian, thank you.

I want to bring in retired FBI special agent Michael Easter, who worked for more than a decade with the Bureau of Cellular Analysis Survey Team.

Michael, thanks for coming back. I mean, is the lack of camera footage the biggest technological blind spot, you think in this case? Because obviously, you know, it struck a lot of people as baffling that even a somewhat rural part of Tucson, there wouldn't be more surveillance cameras or traffic cameras or something that would have given authorities at least an image of a suspicious person or vehicle.

MICHAEL EASTER, FORMER FBI, CELLULAR ANALYSIS SURVEY TEAM: Yes, I would tend to agree with you, Anderson. I would think I would add in to the nature of the properties not being at curb line or street level, and that you see a lot of the properties back up against tree line that would make it difficult for your traditional RING cameras to capture the comings and goings along the primary roadways.

One would hope, and I have had experience in this with other case, is that, in addition to their more overt RING type cameras, that some of the properties would have covert cameras, things such as game cameras or things that they didn't want to broadcast, that they were using to collect CCTV.

I would also add that you have to remember that in addition to CAS, the FBI has a program called DIVRT, and that's our Digital Imagery and Video Recovery Teams and they will put together and stitch together not only cameras in this immediate residence or neighborhood, but throughout that area of Tucson to include likely routes of travel in and out freeways and even businesses and they'll stitch that together in a very dynamic way that investigators can see the location of the camera, what was actually captured, so that it can be related to other digital evidence to include interviews and generate leads.

[20:25:20]

COOPER: How tough is it for a person on a scene to not leave DNA? I mean, you obviously see people wearing latex gloves in movies. I assume there are a lot of other ways one could leave DNA behind. Hair is falling off your head.

EASTER: Yes, I would agree with you, Anderson. I think if somebody's already gone to the extent that they're going to make the effort to remove digital cameras and make some type of effort to remove the victim from the property that they've thought that far ahead. And so, I would be surprised that you're going to see accidental DNA. We're going to have to hope, or I would say purposeful DNA. We're going to have to hope for that accidental DNA that they made a mistake. A glove ripped or they, you know, we've seen other cases where they've just left something behind by accident.

COOPER: Michael Easter, I appreciate you being on again, thank you.

We're going to have more on the kidnaping of Nancy Guthrie later in the program. Bring you any breaking developments immediately.

But up next, the U.S. Olympian labeled a real loser, his words by President Trump, after daring to express his own opinion, has put out another statement. We'll bring that to you.

And members of Congress have begun reviewing unredacted versions of the Epstein files. We'll talk with one of them and Investigative Journalist Julie K. Brown, is here with exclusive new reporting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:30:51]

COOPER: Well, tonight, U.S. Olympic skier Hunter Hess is defending his right to speak out. In a post on Instagram, he writes, "I love my country" and adds, "There's so much that is great about America, but there are always things that could be better. One of the many things that makes this country so amazing is that we have the right and the freedom to point that out. The best part of the Olympics is that it brings people together, and when so many of us are divided, we need that more than ever. I cannot wait to represent Team USA next week when I compete."

He was responding to a public rebuke from President Trump this weekend after saying this on Friday at the Winter Games in Milan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER HESS, U.S. OLYMPIC SKIER: It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't.

Just because I'm wearing the flag, doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S. So, yes, I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, the president criticized him in a post on Truth Social, quote, "U.S. Olympic skier Hunter Hess, a real loser, says he doesn't represent his country in the current Winter Olympics. If that's the case, he shouldn't have tried out for the team, and it's too bad he's on it. Very hard to root for someone like this."

Other U.S. Olympians are also speaking out, including snowboarder Chloe Kim and skier Chris Lillis, who says he's heartbroken about the raids by ICE and the protests that they've sparked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS LILLIS, U.S. OLYMPIC SKIER: I love the USA, and I think I would never want to represent a different country in the Olympics. With that being said, I think that as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect.

CHLOE KIM, U.S. OLYMPIC SNOWBOARDER: I'm really proud to represent the United States. It's -- the U.S. has given my family and I so much opportunity, but I also think that I -- we are allowed to voice our opinions on what's going on. And I think that we need to lead with love and compassion, and I would love to see some more of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is here. He's a CNN senior political commentator. Congressman, of course the president goes after this young man. What does it say about where the U.S. is as a nation when the president calls an American Olympian a real loser because he expressed nuanced feelings?

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, Anderson, there was nothing in any of those soundbites that should have even been controversial. I mean, like, yes, you can disagree with things. This is the United States of America.

What is astounding to me -- first off, I thought they handled that very maturely, and by the way, they were asked about it. What is astounding to me, Anderson, is the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, is so tiny and thin-skinned and whiny and a victim of everything that he's taking his time because he got offended by somebody in their 20s that doesn't love what he's doing.

70 percent of the country doesn't love what you're doing, Donald. I'm sorry. But the idea that the president of the United States has the time to even know what's going on there is insane. We are, what, on the eve of potential strikes in Iran, right? There's all kinds of things going on around the world. Tonight, probably Ukraine was hit again and again by the Russians, and this is Donald Trump's obsession.

And I don't think there's anybody that really can see Donald Trump get this angry and be like, yes, that's normal for a president. They may not admit it, but everybody know this -- knows this is nuts.

COOPER: Monica Crowley, the U.S. government's Chief of Protocol, of all people, reposted the president's attack on Hunter Hess, added her own, quote, "Represent America with pride or GTFO." As in get the F out. I mean, this is like someone in a bar yelling, like, America, love it or leave it, at somebody who, again, just expresses a very basic, nuanced opinion that may not be your own.

But, I mean, I don't -- I do not understand. I think your point about --

KINZINGER: It's --

COOPER: -- the president having the time to do this, I guess this is when he's not watching Kid Rock or, you know, tweeting about Bad Bunny.

[20:35:02]

KINZINGER: I mean, look, this is the United States government. So Trump is the most powerful man in the world. He's the head of the government. But now you have other members of government.

I mean, here's the other thing that's just so weird. And I'm sad because people, if they don't start paying attention until they're like 15 years old to politics, that means people under the age of 25 have no clue what politics should be like. It is not supposed to be an obsession about culture wars.

You know, the halftime show yesterday, I was just thinking about this. And I'm saying this as somebody that was, you know, a conservative for so long. It's like every halftime show for a thousand years, they've been upset about what happens at the halftime show.

Everything is a culture war. Everything is a fight. Everything is a grievance. And Trump is always a victim. And this comes out of the movement that I was part of that used to believe in strength, the strength of the individual, the strength of the man, right? Oh, nobody's going to -- and the most powerful man in the world is whining, whining.

I just -- it's sad. It's probably not even worth our time to talk about except it's the president of the United States. And the rest of the world is watching this too and going, what is going on with you guys in America?

COOPER: Yes, it's a -- it's stunning, but I guess not surprising.

Adam Kinzinger, thank you.

We've just gotten the video of Ghislaine Maxwell's congressional testimony today. That's next along with what lawmakers learned in their first day of access to the unredacted Epstein files, which they've been trying to get access to now.

More as well on the Guthrie case and other notorious kidnappings, specifically the role ransom notes legitimate or not have played.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:40:48]

COOPER: More breaking news. Shortly before airtime, the House Oversight Committee released the video of Ghislaine Maxwell's testimony today, appearing remotely from her so-called club-fed minimum security prison camp in Texas. She had nothing to say beyond this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GHISLAINE MAXWELL, FOUND GUILTY OF CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING: I invoke my Fifth Amendment right. I invoke my Fifth Amendment right to silence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The answer to that is yes also. So just, as a lawyer, I'll tell you, yes, that's her right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That's 11 times in all invoking her Fifth Amendment right, which was widely expected. Not expected, however, was her message to the president, offering to speak, quote, "fully and honestly" if granted clemency by President Trump. The offer, including that promise, came in a statement from her attorney, who added that his client would clear both the president and former President Clinton of any wrongdoing.

Also today, lawmakers got their first look at unredacted items from the Epstein files, with some coming away skeptical about the names the Justice Department has chosen to conceal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R), KENTUCKY: What I saw that bothered me were the names of at least six men that have been redacted that are likely incriminated by their inclusion in these files. So that's the first thing that I saw. It took some digging to find them.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Our law was very clear. Unless something was classified, it required it to be unredacted. And there's -- they have not complied with that law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Congressman Ro Khanna, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, joins us shortly. Committee Chairman Massie earlier today also weighed in sharply on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Secretary Lutnick, you'll remember, recently said that he cut ties with Epstein in 2005, vowing, he said, to, quote, "never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again." The files suggest otherwise, showing what appears to be contact as recently as 2015. Asked today whether Lutnick should testify before the committee, Chairman Massie said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASSIE: No, he should just resign. I mean, there are three people in Great Britain that have resigned in politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Also, the former Prince Andrew today got one more thing to worry about. His brother, King Charles, is reportedly ready to support police in their investigation, British police, in their investigation and report in the files that Andrew allegedly shared confidential material with Epstein during his role as U.K. trade envoy.

On top of that, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer spent the day trying to save his job after, as Congressman Massie mentioned, the resignations of several key advisers in connection with the Epstein scandal.

Joining us now, California Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, sits on the House Oversight Committee, sat in on the Maxwell testimony and viewed some of the unredacted files today. So, Congressman, what are your biggest takeaways after viewing some of those unredacted documents?

KHANNA: That too much of it was still redacted. Anderson, you'll remember that in March, the FBI had 1,000 personnel going through these files. Donald Trump had ordered them to go through the files, and they made many redactions. And it looks like what happened is those files were redacted then, and then they sent them over to Justice, and Justice kept those redactions.

Well, the FBI works for Pam Bondi, and they need to unscrub the redactions that the FBI made to comply with the Epstein Transparency Act.

COOPER: So even the files you saw were redacted?

KHANNA: I'd say 70 percent to 80 percent of them were redacted. The main 302 statements where survivors talked about who raped them, all of that was still redacted. Now, we did find information about some excessive redactions where there were six men in the two hours we reviewed who should not have been redacted, and I do hope the Justice Department makes that public.

Some of the most sensational emails, frankly, the -- some of the redactions may have been legitimate because some of them were from women, some of them may have been survivors. But the broader theme is that a lot of this was redacted back in March before we passed the law, and the law requires an unscrubbing of those files so we know who the powerful men were who visited the island and raped these girls, and that was never done.

[20:45:00]

COOPER: You were at Maxwell's deposition with the House Oversight Committee today. She invoked her Fifth Amendment right multiple times and also promised to clear President Trump's name in exchange for clemency. I'm wondering what your takeaway was from that and the whole deposition itself.

KHANNA: I was outraged. I mean, she spent hours talking to Deputy Attorney General Blanche and answering his questions, yet when it came to the Oversight Committee, whether there were Republican or Democratic questions, she took the blanket Fifth Amendment, even when we were asking her nothing about incriminating herself, just asking her who else came to the island, who else do you know that could have trafficked in girls.

And then she says, well, I do have this information. I know this information, but I'm only going to share it if you give me clemency and don't have any prosecution. That's not how things work. She should be sent back to the maximum security prison.

COOPER: We played that clip where you and Congressman Massie said there are at least six men whose names have been redacted who should be incriminated by their inclusion in the files. Can you elaborate more on that? I mean, is it clear -- were that -- was that part of the group that was redacted in the first place?

KHANNA: No, that is not part of the group. It doesn't look like that was part of the group that was redacted in the first place. There are certain documents that say there are 10 co-conspirators, 15 co- conspirators. In that document, some of them were women.

Now, I don't know if those women were survivors or not survivors, but we give the benefit of the doubt to justice. Maybe those were survivors who also happened to be co-conspirators and they appropriately redacted them. But there are six men in those documents, some of them foreign-born, a couple of them in the United States with their pictures, and there's absolutely no explanation for why they were redacted.

Now, we just discovered six men in a two-hour review. My guess is there are more of those people, and we are going to petition the Justice Department to release that. That could have been incompetence and a cover-up.

The broader cover-up, though, that I'm concerned about is the scrubbing that took place in March in the FBI files, where all of this redacted information was then sent to the Justice Department. I think U.S. attorneys looked at it in good faith, but they were looking at documents that were already redacted. So when I said to the Justice Department person, who was very nice, helping me search through the documents, I said, why are these redacted? He said, well, sir, we got them this way.

So we just are putting them up in the form we got them. And that is the big issue that needs to be addressed.

COOPER: Congressman Ro Khanna, as always, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Joining me now is Julie K. Brown, award-winning investigative reporter for the Miami Herald, whose work was instrumental in exposing the extent of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. She's also the author of "Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story."

Tonight, Julie, you have new reporting for the Miami Herald in a piece titled "Trump Told Palm Beach Police Chief Everyone Knew About Epstein, Maxwell Was Evil." So, Julie, your new reporting in the Herald tonight is about comments then-citizen Trump allegedly made to the Palm Beach police some 20 years ago about Epstein and Maxwell. Can you just walk us through it?

JULIE K. BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, MIAMI HERALD: Yes. To put this in context, this was in July of 2006, and it was right around the time that Epstein was arrested and that there were stories in the media about him being accused of having sex or sexually abusing minors at his mansion. And it was right after that story broke in Palm Beach that the -- that Trump called the Palm Beach police chief, who he knew well because, you know, Trump knew a lot of people in Palm Beach, including the chief.

And made this comment to the effect that, you know, everyone knew. Thank -- first, he wanted to thank the police for finally stopping him because, again, Epstein was finally arrested at this time. And then said everybody knew. And he also goes on to describe how the -- or to tell the police to really take a good look at Maxwell because she was sort of the, quote unquote, "operative" and she was evil.

And he also mentioned that he had been in some kind of a space with Epstein and a bunch of teenage girls. It bothered him and he said, I got the -- quote, "I got the hell out of there." So this is in the context of Trump finding out that Epstein is really being scrutinized now for what he was doing with underage girls and coming to the Palm Beach police chief and saying, you know, well, thank you. You know, everybody knew he was doing this.

So it sort of contradicts some of the statements that Trump has made in the past saying that he really didn't know anything about what Epstein was doing with underage girls.

COOPER: Have you gotten comment from the White House on this? Because we asked the administration for comment. We got a DOJ official told us, quote, "We're not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago."

[20:50:12]

BROWN: Well, they could look in their Epstein files because this is a FBI document that's contained in the files, which we've attached to this story. And also I sent them, they sent me the same statement. So, you know, I don't know what they mean by corroborating, but this is a document that is clearly in the files that, as I said, I sent to them.

COOPER: It's remarkable because in your article, it really goes into detail about Palm Beach police investigating, seeing school girls going into -- apparently school girls, girls with braces and backpacks going into Epstein's mansion, them developing a case, taking it to prosecutors and prosecutors not pursuing it.

BROWN: That's right. This was part of my original investigation back in 2018, where we realized that Palm Beach police had made a very thorough investigation, had dozens of victims that they had interviewed and they wanted to prosecute him on for a state crime, for a sexual assault or crimes involving sex with minors.

And the state attorney at the time backed down and said he didn't want to charge him with something so serious. In fact, he was going to just charge Epstein with solicitation. The police chief balked at that and said that there is no way you're just going to charge him with a solicitation charge. And eventually the police chief Michael Reiter, who was a true behind the scenes hero in this story, went over the state attorney's head and took the case to the FBI.

COOPER: And according to your reporting, Epstein hired investigators to basically follow the police and go through their garbage to try to find incriminating stuff about police officers.

BROWN: They really tried to damage the police's -- I mean, they dug into everything. They were trying to call it the -- you know, Epstein hired publicists to plant stories in the media that were negative of the police chief, that it was some kind of a vendetta by the police. I mean, it was just very baseless claims that they were making to try to discredit the police, the detective, the victims.

They followed the victims. They followed the victim's families. I mean, it was an all-out campaign to discredit anyone who was trying to implicate or accuse Epstein of any of these crimes.

COOPER: Wow. Well, Julie K. Brown, I appreciate you being on. Thank you.

Coming up next, we're going to return to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, her daughter Savannah releasing that new video this afternoon pleading for the public's help. No mention of tonight's alleged ransom deadline. We'll look at how these kinds of ransom notes have been a factor in some other high profile cases.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:57:09]

COOPER: Returning to the Nancy Guthrie disappearance, more on the purported ransom note and the $6 million in Bitcoin, which was apparently due at 5:00 p.m. time zone unclear, according to TV station KGUN. Now, officials have not authenticated it. They have been taking it seriously. Mrs. Guthrie's daughter, Savannah, made no mention of that deadline in her video this afternoon but said we are at an hour of desperation.

CNN's Randi Kaye looks at how ransom demands have played a role in other cases over the years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day after Christmas, 1996, a ransom note is discovered in JonBenet Ramsey's house.

PATSY RAMSEY, MOTHER OF JONBENET RAMSEY: The note was lying across the three pages across the run of one of the stair treads. And I started to read it. It said, we have your daughter. And I immediately ran back upstairs and pushed open her door, and she was not in her bed.

KAYE (voice-over): The note says, quote, "If you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions." It demands $118,000. The kidnappers say they represent a small foreign faction and sign it SBTC. The letter was a ruse. JonBenet was already dead. Her killer or killers have never been identified.

Decades earlier, in 1960, Adolph Coors III, heir to the Coors Brewing Company fortune, is kidnapped in Colorado. The ransom demand, $200,000 in 10s and $300,000 in 20s. The ransom note tells Mrs. Coors to contact the kidnapper about the money by placing an ad in the Denver Post for a tractor in section 69. She does that but never hears back.

Authorities trace it all to a man named Joseph Corbett Jr., who had escaped prison in California. In September 1960, Mr. Coors' remains are found. His killer, Corbett, is later caught in Canada, convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

When newspaper heiress Patty Hearst is kidnapped in 1974 --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patty, still screaming, was dragged out to a waiting car and thrown into a trunk.

KAYE (voice-over): -- her captors, who identify themselves as the Symbionese Liberation Army, send a ransom note demanding the release of two recently arrested members. Then-California Governor Ronald Reagan denies that, which leads to a new demand. A multi-million dollar food giveaway for the poor. Still, Patty is not released.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Patty, and we're all praying for you.

KAYE (voice-over): Soon, she's caught on camera participating in robberies with the radical group. She's arrested nearly two years later and sent to prison.

In what many consider the crime of the century, the kidnapping of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh's son, there were 13 ransom notes in all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The little boy was kidnapped from his second floor bedroom. Left behind was a crudely written ransom note that demanded $50,000 for the return of the child.

KAYE (voice-over): The ransom notes warn against contacting police. Riddled with spelling errors, they read, "After two to four days, we'll inform you where to deliver the money." Months later, the boy is found dead.

A man named Bruno Hauptmann eventually executed for his murder. His conviction partially secured based on handwriting analysis from all those ransom notes.

Randi Kaye, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, that's it for us. The news continues. I'll see you tomorrow night. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.