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Erin Burnett Outfront
FBI Releases Description Of Suspect In Guthrie Case, Ups Reward To $100K; TMZ Received New Email From Person Claiming To Know Guthrie Kidnapper; "XOXO" Sign-Offs: Inside A Former Obama White House Counsel's Ties To Epstein. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired February 12, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:22]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, the FBI just releasing new details tonight about the man seen in the doorbell camera video at Nancy Guthrie's home on the night she vanished, as we're learning, they've also identified the type of backpack he was carrying.
Plus, a chilling threat. TMZ reporting tonight that it received another email from a person claiming to know who kidnapped Nancy Guthrie. According to TMZ, the new message even more ominous. TMZ's Harvey Levin is OUTFRONT.
And new details about the Goldman Sachs executive and former Obama White House lawyer who Jeffrey Epstein once called his great defender. A new KFILE report on their relationship.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, the FBI just releasing new details tonight about the man. Authorities are now calling the suspect in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie.
In a new release, the FBI writes, "The suspect is described as a male, approximately five foot nine inches, or five foot 10 inches tall, with an average build. In the video, he is wearing a black 25-liter Ozark trail hiker pack backpack.
Now, the FBI then posted these images of the backpack, which as you can see has the reflective material on the straps that was clearly visible on the one image investigators released. Right? Remember, that really stood out. So now you can see it here the man on camera on the night Guthrie vanished. The FBI adds that they've received now more than 13,000 tips since February 1st. One of those tips we now know, a white van. According to a law enforcement official, a neighbor who lives across from Nancy Guthrie previously told "The New York Post", and I quote, it was somewhere on that street. It was a white van, full size, with no printing on the sides. It was parked on the street.
Now, news of this white van coming as Guthrie's neighbors are also being asked to check the footage from their security cameras from two specific days in January. Now those days aren't even back-to-back. The two days are January 11th and January 31st, and they're looking for a suspicious vehicle in the area between roughly 9:00 p.m. and midnight.
So that is incredibly specific, right? Investigators are also asking people who live within a two-mile radius of Guthrie to check their surveillance video for anything suspicious at all, and on that, they're going all the way back to January 1st.
Guthrie was last seen on January 31st, and today authorities are returning to Guthrie's home. Now, a white tent briefly went up outside that front door, right outside it, covering it you can see it there from that aerial photo. We do not know exactly why, but that was obviously notable today. And the Pima County sheriff's department did share that investigators have recovered several items of evidence, including gloves. And that is a plural on gloves.
Now, this comes as "The New York Post" reported FBI agents found at least one black glove a mile and a half from Nancy Guthrie's home.
Nick Watt is OUTFRONT. He is in Tucson, Arizona, tonight.
And, Nick, obviously a lot happening. And that tent raising a lot of questions today outside Nancy Guthrie's home. What is the latest that you're learning?
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have a theory on the tent we saw what looked like investigators measuring. So, what they must have done, we surmise, is taken that video of the suspect on the doorstep seen where his head was relating to the porch and then gone in there today and actually measured that. And that's where they got the five nine, five, ten.
Clearly, there is a strong theory that this perpetrator is local. They've asked for a month of video. So, they don't think this person just swooped in and left that they were around for a while. And you know, the Guthrie family themselves, they have a long and deep history here in Tucson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (voice-over): Guthrie family home movies posted by Savannah this morning. An average American family with a little girl who would one day make it to the top of a very public profession.
Just a couple of months ago, she revisited Tucson, her hometown, for "The Today Show".
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC "TODAY" HOST: People ask me, where are you from? I'm always proud when I say Tucson, Arizona. I grew up there, went to college there. My mom still lives there.
WATT (voice-over): These days, many news personalities nod to home family and friends on TV. It's humanizing, relatable. Did it bring attention to Nancy Guthrie?
ANDREW BLACK, FORMER AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI TUCSON: Well, it's conceivable if people involved weren't aware that Savannah's mom lived there. It's conceivable. And I imagine the local police and the FBI are looking into that possibility.
WATT (voice-over): The Guthrie's have been in Tucson since the '70s.
BLACK: Most likely, the investigators believe this individual and anybody helping him is local. And they base it on the familiarity of the neighborhoods, his movement, the fact that communications were made to local media.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: What made you want to stay in Tucson and plant roots?
NANCY GUTHRIE, SAVANNAH'S MOM: So wonderful. Just the air, the quality of life is laid back and gentle. I like to watch the javelina eat my plants.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome back home, Savannah.
WATT (voice-over): Savannah went to high school here and college, revisiting the University of Arizona for that "Today Show" segment.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: This was a formative place for me, and it's just great to come back.
WATT (voice-over): Later, she spent five years working here at a local news station.
SAVANNAHU GUTHRIE: We begin with the end of the Olympics.
WATT (voice-over): A career that wound up at the "Today Show". Savannah came back to Tucson to get married in 2014.
Now, Nancy wasn't bragging around town about her famous daughter. We've spoken to neighbors who knew her just as the nice lady with the dog.
JEFF LAMIE, NANCY GUTHRIE'S NEIGHBOR: We were not aware that Savannah Guthrie was her daughter. I mean, this is a very normal person in a community.
SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: We didn't know who she was, but we knew that -- we had this mid-80s woman missing from her home.
WATT (voice-over): Still unclear who this person on her doorstep is. Who would want to kidnap her and why?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT: And now, day 12. The FBI has doubled their reward from 50,000 to 100,000. You mentioned, Erin, the glove. The gloves that have been recovered. The sheriff's department said other evidence has been recovered as well.
Rain expected tomorrow. That could slightly hamper that. Search for more evidence in the outdoors well see. And listen, one last thing to say about this community of Tucson. They have rallied around the Guthrie family. There's a little memorial here with ribbons and flowers and the message, "Guthries, your neighbors stand with you" -- Erin.
BURNETT: Nick, thank you very much.
And everyone is here with me.
So, John, when Nick's talking about it, it appears, among other things, that possibly the tent was put up so that they could conduct a lot of measurements if they saw someone walk through, they could compare height versus the arch, things like that, to get to the height. So they've -- they've come to five nine, five ten, that's very specific.
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Yeah. So, they use tools like photogrammetry. You start with the picture where you see things that have a definite height, like the archway, and then things that you need to measure like the person. And then you bring in the equipment.
There are different kinds of equipment like the Nikon total station that will do a 360 degree slow turn around, and it will record everything, measure distances using its own radar between the lens and those things, give you exact measurements, and then you feed it into a program and you can point to any image in that, in any entity in that image and say, how tall is this? How far is this from that? And so on.
And that's what they were doing within the tent today.
BURNETT: So, so, Wally, okay. You know, going into day 13 here, now they are doubling the reward from $50,000 to $100,000 for anyone who knows anything. Obviously, you know, they've come up with the suspects height today and, you know, the video, the pictures obviously came out a couple of days ago. This is all -- we're two weeks out almost, which is stunning. Absolutely incomprehensible just the family and the suffering they're going through.
Are they getting closer? I mean, doubling the reward what does that signal?
WALLACE ZEINS, FORMER NYPD HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Says more tips are going to come in. Money talks and a lot more people are going to call up and say, you know what? That sparks an interest in me and they will start to get a lot more phone calls and with a lot more phone calls.
They've had over 18,000 tips already. They're going to have to triage all those calls. They're going to have to start to separate. They're going to have to say, you know what this person called? That person called with the same information. We'll put that in the plus sector.
This one doesn't jive. This one is calling me about a theory, that's going to go in the out sector. They're going to follow up until they get enough leads to go to the ones that are going to lead us to the next step.
MILLER: I think there's something else interesting there, which is taking the reward from $50,000 to $100,000.
BURNETT: Yes.
MILLER: Remember, we had someone who might be a scammer come to a media outlet yesterday and say, give me one bitcoin, which is --
BURNETT: Sixty-seven thousand dollars.
MILLER: Exactly. So, by doubling the reward, they're basically saying if you want to get a payday because you really have the information, go to the right place, do it the right way.
BURNETT: Right, right.
ZEINS: And that person would be a hero not a perp.
BURNETT: Right. If they -- if they went to the actual authorities.
Ed Davis, you're the former Boston police commissioner. So, you were heading up. Everybody remembers the Tsarnaev brothers, right? The search for the Boston marathon bomber shut down the entire city. Law enforcement from the entire country at your disposal, right, to -- in much the way this is in this particular case.
When you release security camera video of the Boston bombers, you had a name, Ed, I believe the next day.
[19:10:01]
Now, you did have a clear view of the suspect. Obviously, here we've got a mask on. We're two days after and obviously we don't -- we don't have a name yet.
We do know that immediately after they did go for what turned out to be the wrong guy. Where do you think this case is right now?
ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, Erin, I believe that once this video was discovered and published, that was a turning point in the investigation. It wasn't as clear as the video that we had Tsarnaev brothers. There was a mask involved here, and that wasn't the case with the suspects we were chasing.
But within a day or two, we were able to find them for two reasons. One is that they activated themselves because they knew they were going to be caught. And the other is because several of their friends identified them but didn't call the police right away.
So that could be happening right now. And it's not just the face, it's the way the person moves. It's the clothing that he's had that other people are going to recognize and hopefully call in.
BURNETT: So, Bob, as I mentioned everyone, they've seen you here every night, right? Twenty-five years with the Pima County SWAT team.
BOB KRYGIER, RETIRED SWAT COMMANDER: Yeah.
BURNETT: You just retired a few weeks ago. So we've got this new information tonight where were getting the five, nine five, ten for the suspect, average build male, which I think was clear from the video, but they're putting all of this out there obviously, the details of the backpack confirming what TMZ had reported last night.
What more can you tell us about what's happening on the ground there? You know, with the SWAT teams who as you know, we know have been ready to go at a moment's notice
KRYGIER: And they still are. I know that the Pima regional SWAT team has teams set up ready to go at any moment. I know that FBI HRT is in town. Same thing. Ready to go?
Pima County is huge. There's a lot of ground to cover. So, I know that they're putting plans together to get to get bodies wherever they need to as quickly as possible. And just training and practicing and taking rep after rep after rep, depending on what the intel is saying, where they have to go, what kind of structure, they're just waiting for some more solid information. But what I do know is that that all the teams that are involved are ready to go.
BURNETT: Yeah. So, John, you know, one thing I think people watching maybe wondering, were past the deadline that was given in those notes. Now whether those notes are real, we don't know whether they came from the same person right. So, we don't know but were past the deadline for the $6 million with a horrible consequence. And everyone should just stop talking about that altogether.
What does that mean?
MILLER: I think what it suggests -- and remember the last message from the family. It was carefully worded, very short fairly cryptic.
BURNETT: Yeah.
MILLER: I think what that means is you have somebody making an outrageous ransom demand, millions of dollars in bitcoin to an anonymous portal from an anonymous email who, as far as we know, from all of our sources the whole team here, there was never a proof of possession, POP, there was never a proof of life.
BURNETT: Proof of life, nothing. Yeah.
MILLER: So, I believe that at this stage, those discussions are over for the moment.
BURNETT: Right, and so, Wally --
MILLER: And I believe that is also why you've seen a turning up of the volume, a widening of the aperture, expanding the search area, pushing more information to the public raising the reward. They're going from, we're trying to figure out the veracity of these notes and these claims --
BURNETT: To try to do an exchange and get her back quickly.
MILLER: To, okay, we're going all out investigation now, which -- which they, you know, clearly have expanded in the last 24, 48 hours.
BURNETT: I mean, they haven't, Wally. They've gone back, you know, in those first days when they really weren't looking for things, right? They kind of had, you know left the crime scene, right? They were working on a, I guess, a hostage deal they thought. Right? A kidnapping.
ZEINS: Yes.
BURNETT: And then all of a sudden, they're going back, right? And they're doing the grid search and they're picking up the glove on the side of the road. They're finding the backpack. So they're -- they're doing all of that now.
I mean, where do you think the evidence stands right now with all those items, finding out if these are actually related to this person? We don't know.
ZEINS: Well, there's a lot of good detective work that has to be done not just using all the forensic stuff in Quantico, which is the best in the world, by the way. But they got to hit the street. They got to go out there, and they got to work the grounds.
For example. You know, a lot of that area that that desert area is owned by the Indians reservations and, you know they know the turf. They know exactly certain parts. They may be very helpful working with the FBI and the locals, walking to areas that they know where people might hide things, people might be buried, people might, you know, know the nomenclature of the land, the demographics.
BURNETT: And, Bob, that's in a sense, what you've been saying, right, is that the vastness of the space here, it sounds like cannot be overestimated. And to people who aren't from there, it all may look the same, or it may look like scrub. But even where you're standing now, Bob, you can see the density of it behind you.
[19:15:07]
KRYGIER: Yeah, and this is a residential neighborhood. This is exactly what the desert area looks like from here to the border. Pima County is just under 10,000 square miles. Think about that, it's the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. That's the size of our jurisdiction. Now, there is a lot of reservation, like somebody mentioned, but it's vast and it's dense, and it's difficult to search.
And unfortunately, you know, plenty of folks and things and items go missing in the desert all the time. And sometimes we stumble upon them, sometimes we don't. And like you said, it's going to be good detective work, good investigators doing good police work to get to the bottom of this. BURNETT: I mean, John, that does really powerful statement. What he
just said, right. If it is someone local and they didn't go far, you're still looking at a county of 10,000 miles larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, where he just said people and things go missing and aren't found.
MILLER: And he did make the point. You know there are tribal reservations, Native Americans, and it raises a question to me, which is, you know, tribal law enforcement is a real entity. You know, in the law enforcement community. I'd be curious from Bob as to whether he knows whether they've been -- now that's going out in further concentric circles, but whether they've been in touch with tribal law enforcement and are leveraging that.
BURNETT: Yeah. Bob, have you heard anything about that?
KRYGIER: I haven't heard anything specifically, but I do know we have excellent working relationships with the tribal police that we have. We park -- some of them are actually part of our Pima Regional SWAT team. So, the working relationships are there and they butt up to metropolitan Tucson, and then they push out into some of the further regions.
So I'm certain as much as I can be that that they've been -- they've been reached out to.
BURNETT: Commissioner Davis, that white tent that nick was referring to, and he was talking about how they were probably doing measurements in there as well. It was up for just a few hours. What do you think was going on there?
DAVIS: Well, there are two reasons why a tent goes up. One is for weather to try to preserve DNA, if it's raining or snowing. In this particular case, that's not a concern. I believe that it was to obscure the work that they were doing in there.
And I would agree with John that the measuring that was going on to determine not only the height of the suspect, but the size of their shoes and other things that that are very important to this investigation. All of that is being done under the cover of that tent.
BURNETT: Yeah.
All right. Well, thank you all very much.
And TMZ's Harvey Levin is next. He's now received another message from someone claiming to know who kidnaped Nancy Guthrie. The new message, anonymous one, according to TMZ.
Plus, Guthrie's doorbell camera provided the biggest breakthrough yet in her disappearance. And tonight, investigators are calling on more people to check those cams. So, what more can authorities uncover that you may not even realize is there?
The founder of Ring cameras is OUTFRONT tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:22:26]
BURNETT: Breaking news, the FBI identifying the backpack worn by the armed masked man outside Nancy Guthrie's front door. That backpack, identified as a black 25 liter Ozark trail hiker pack backpack which confirms what TMZ founder Harvey Levin said to us last night here on the show about the backpack. The FBI is also releasing images of what a similar backpack looks like, and it comes as TMZ has now received a new -- another email -- from someone who claims to know who kidnapped Nancy Guthrie, appearing to be -- purporting to be the same person who had sent them an email prior.
Harvey Levin is now OUTFRONT. He's obviously been breaking news from the beginning of this and received the initial ransom note.
So, Harvey, the FBI coming out tonight and confirming the backpack model that you reported here 24 hours ago, you were very specific that this was an Ozark trail hiker pack because you guys had gone and done the boots, boots on the ground reporting at Walmart. Turns out you're right.
HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ FOUNDER: Yeah, the problem with that is its pretty common backpack, and it sells a lot. So I'm actually more interested in this holster because I think the holster is so unique because the type of gun that he had in that holster is not the type of gun that -- that gun you typically carry in it. So, I really think that there is something there that maybe a gun range or somebody, maybe a gun store would have kind of seen that holster and been surprised at the kind of gun that was in it.
So, the backpack, you know, maybe somebody, you know, will have a lead on that. But I think that holster is really important.
BURNETT: And you know what? You were talking about the holster last night, too. You identified it as really important.
And I know you were making calls. You were calling all of the gun ranges, right? To see if anybody had showed up with that, that type of a holster. Right? Because as you were pointing out Harvey, to someone who really knew a lot about guns or who was in law enforcement, who had a gun range holster like this would stand out to them, right? So, they might remember somebody had come in, which was your logic, and you were making those calls.
Have you learned anything?
LEVIN: No. I mean, look we make were making calls all day, and a lot of the people, you know, don't want to talk if you're not one of the authorities and a lot of them said, we don't know anything, you know, its just one of those things where you make 100 phone calls and, you know eventually somebody says, oh, yeah, I remember that. We haven't gotten that so far.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. So let me ask you about this email because you got another email, Harvey, from someone who says they know who kidnapped Nancy Guthrie and that they'll reveal it for -- for one bitcoin, which we were talking about this last night, $67,000.
[19:25:05]
You had gotten one yesterday. Okay. Now you've got another one. And the writer tells you this is going to be their final communication attempt. So, tell me what it -- what it says.
LEVIN: Well, the again, this is the same person who sent us something yesterday. And this one. Well, it is more ominous and we can talk about that in a minute. But this person says, you got to take me seriously. And he's saying the reason he wants this bitcoin is because he is going to have to go underground because he says he fears retaliation. He knows who the kidnapper is. And he's going to be kind of tarred and feathered as he puts it, a national rat.
But he also mentions the delivery man. He said, I also don't want, you know, I could end up with, you know, being implicated the way this delivery man was. And he was, you know, detained but released. And he doesn't want that either.
So, he said basically he needs this bitcoin so he can just, you know, just disappear for a while and not work.
I got to tell you, Erin, you know, we made it very clear yesterday that we forwarded yesterdays to law enforcement. We forwarded this one to law enforcement and said that if this is a hoax, it's a crime. It's a federal crime.
And this person came back and is really saying, look, this is the last time I'm going to send you anything, but I know who this kidnapper is, and I can lead you to him.
So, look, I don't know. Weve sent it on to the FBI. They're looking at it you know, but he -- he says something in the middle of it that you know, he paints a very bleak picture.
BURNETT: Okay, I want to -- I want to ask you about a lot of things here and the bleak picture as well, but can I just ask you one thing? Just to be very clear, because I think you're -- you're right on the edge of it, but I want to make it clear because last night we were laying out, well, if you get $50,000 from the FBI and $67,000 is one bitcoin, why not just call law enforcement and do it that way? Right?
And it made -- it made it feel like maybe this wasn't real, but you're just you just walked up to the edge there on that they're giving you a reason, that they're saying they'd be tarred and feathered or you know what -- what was the reason that they gave why they were coming to you and not with the FBI?
LEVIN: They didn't say. I mean, they did not say. They -- they just gave this reason that they need the money because they're going to have to go underground. And I assume what that means is they're not going to make any money, you know while they go underground.
But they seem, at least again, if it's real, scared of retaliation and I think that's at its base. And we talked yesterday that, you know, sometimes, you know they don't pay the reward to a certain person. And so this is more of a bird in a hand, I guess.
BURNETT: Yeah.
LEVIN: I don't know whether there's any coincidence here about him asking for bitcoin again and the FBI now raising the stakes to 100 grand because now its significantly more than the bitcoin. I don't know, it's just --
BURNETT: It's fair. I thought of that too.
LEVIN: Yeah. Yeah.
BURNETT: So, Harvey, okay. So now, in it, you talk about that there's a sentence in there where it paints a very bleak picture and there's an ominous warning. What is that?
LEVIN: Look, I mean, the reason -- I don't want to put this out there and it's not even so much that law enforcement asked us not to, but, you know, I don't know that this is real or not. So, I don't want to put something out there that that may not be true at all.
BURNETT: Yeah.
LEVIN: But this person is acting like things have changed. The situation has changed. Let me just kind of leave it at that. I just don't want to go beyond that. Other than to say that if this person is real, this is a dire situation.
BURNETT: A dire situation regarding Nancy Guthrie.
LEVIN: Yes
BURNETT: Yeah. Okay. All right. I, I think we all understand what you're saying. So, they basically it if its real and we don't know, but they -- they're saying they know who did it, but they also know something about her situation as it -- as it stands right now.
LEVIN: Yes.
BURNETT: Okay. So have you seen -- I got to ask this again because every day when we talk, the original ransom note which you received had the bitcoin address, which you reported here the other night, had received money and that was 13 minutes past the final deadline. We were just talking a moment ago about how we haven't heard anything about money and money transfers. Now in exchange for Nancy Guthrie's return since that deadline passed.
Have you seen any activity in that bitcoin account today?
LEVIN: No activity in that account and no activity in the account of the person who sent us this note, either.
BURNETT: Write that note, the one, the one with a new bitcoin address, right asking for you to transfer the one bitcoin.
All right. Harvey, thank you. [19:30:01]
LEVIN: Okay, Erin. We'll probably talk tomorrow I think.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. You have a good night, Harvey. And next, authorities are now calling on more people who live near Nancy Guthrie's home to check their doorbell cameras. What they could be looking for.
Well, guess what? The founder of Ring cameras is next, going to go through it.
Plus, our file with an exclusive on just how close Jeffrey Epstein was with a Goldman Sachs executive and former Obama White House lawyer, a friendship that included gifts and talk of visiting Epstein's private island.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:35:11]
BURNETT: Breaking news, CNN just learning that the white tent at Nancy Guthrie's house was part of a testing procedure to create nighttime conditions. A source just telling our own Josh Campbell that FBI specialists set up the tent to create a blackout environment to replicate clothing in a backpack similar to what the suspect was believed to be wearing. It comes, of course as that doorbell cam footage is now the core of this investigation.
OUTFRONT now is Jamie Siminoff. He is the founder and inventor of the Ring camera.
And, Jamie, you know, the Ring camera now is it really at the center of this, right? That is where the breakthrough came from, was from video that that might have, you know, appeared to be deleted and somehow they were able to get. The new alert that the sheriff has posted on your Ring neighbor's app is asking everyone within a two mile radius of Nancy Guthrie's home to look for anything from January 1st through February 2nd on their doorbell cameras.
You know, look, you know this better than anybody. How much usable information do you think police can get from the cameras if they're asking for that, going back all the way to January 1st?
JAMIE SIMINOFF, RING FOUNDER AND CHIEF INVENTOR: I mean, from what we've seen in the past and obviously, don't want to speculate on a case like this, but I'd say from past history, a lot. Typically, a suspect like this has been in the neighborhood has been doing things in the neighborhood. And so, seeing that alert come out -- that came out today, I hope that all of our Ring customers are looking through their cameras and seeing if there are any videos that might be interesting for the police to look at and investigate further.
BURNETT: So, you know the doorbell camera outside Guthrie's home was not a was not a Ring cam. It was a Nest cam. But they found the images that we've gotten here from what they've called as, quote/unquote, "residual data". Is that something that makes sense to you that you think -- I mean, even if you think about it from Ring, right, that there could be something that, you know people think they've deleted or they're no longer retaining or you know, it rolls over every seven days or whatever it might be in your specific situation that it's still there, it's still there and, quote/unquote, "residual"?
SIMINOFF: So there's different ways to architect systems. I built the Ring system. And so I know I built it, that it does not have this. If you -- if you delete a video on Ring, it is basically in real time is in essence taken off of our servers, and we run a script that does that. There's -- there are other ways to allow things. Sometimes people just allow sort of data to stay until something writes over it again. Which would appear to be the case in this point.
I obviously wouldn't want to again talk about another company and how they're doing stuff. I would say I mean, this video has been so critical in this case, you know, it's -- it is, you know, the first hopeful thing I think we've had so far to leading to a suspect to leading to, you know, and again hopefully Nancy's safe return here.
BURNETT: Yeah. I'm curious also. I mean, this was a in this situation was a nest cam. But I was talking to John miller a moment ago and I was just wondering in the sense of, you know if someone rips a ring camera for example, off of a wall, right? And they walk off with it. Okay you know, in a case, in a case like this, if it had been a Ring. Is it -- it still has battery, but its ripped off, you know, so its no longer attached to something. If it were to be brought within the range of wi-fi or something like that would it start transmitting again? Possibly. Could it still be, you know recording if it has a battery?
SIMINOFF: Yeah. So, the way we built it and I even did right from the beginning, I did a lifetime guarantee that if someone like rips your ring off or steals your ring, we'll give it back, give you another one for free. Because I always thought that if someone wants to come up and kick a ring off the door we'll have that video of what happened.
And so, I've always thought, you know, if you want to do that, that's fine. We've already sent it up to the cloud and we have you and so that's what's most important for us. Our mission is to make neighborhoods safer. So yeah, we immediately put that in the cloud. And we have that recording.
BURNETT: So, you know, there was that super bowl ad that is getting so much talk that of course, you know, Jeff Jamie promoting your new search party feature, which uses A.I. on Ring cams. And the ad was about finding missing dogs.
Now, I know some people have gotten all, you know, worried about this applied to people, but I'm curious whether you think that same A.I. technology could be used in situations like this people want to use their Ring cams to say, look, I want to single out the white van, right? I want to single out, you know, somebody with a backpack, you know, if they're actually look for the pieces of information they're being asked to look for, can that search party feature help? SIMINOFF: So right now, the search party feature is literally just
built for dogs. So it's built to look for dogs to tell you if the dog is in front of your house and then you have the decision to, you know, contact the owner or not. What we have built is, is community requests, and community requests is what we have seen used in the Brown shooting. We've seen it used around the country.
[19:40:01]
We've also seen it used here by the police department to do alerts out, to ask for video footage in a very efficient way, where our customers get a request that says, would you, you know, if you have anything, can you supply it? Their anonymity is protected if they don't do anything. And if they do, obviously, then they can share with the police
BURNETT: All right. Well, it's all such important information. Jamie, thank you so much.
SIMINOFF: Thanks for having me.
BURNETT: All right. Jason Siminoff, as I said, is the founder and inventor of the Ring camera. So actually, the inventor so knows exactly how it works and what we're dealing with.
Wally Zeins is with me back here.
So, Wally, interesting., you know, what he said there just as a -- as a quick point that, you know, they can look for those things. But right now, that new feature everyone's talking about is really for dogs. So that is going to be a bit more of a process to find things like a white van.
ZEINS: There's always that choice, you know, again, technology is at its best. There will always be someone who make a better mousetrap and also make a better Ring camera or to get whatever they're looking for.
BURNETT: And obviously, people there are going to be turning all of that in. I mean, you're going back a month there.
All right. Josh Campbell's new reporting where they put the tent over the area where the camera was ripped off the wall, but the new reporting that they wanted to create a dark area, right, so that they could reenact. And they were doing that during daylight. They could have waited till night. Okay. And there's been 13 days. They didn't wait until night. They put the tent up and recreated the darkness to recreate that moment today, during the day.
ZEINS: Simple, exigent circumstances. They wanted to get to it right away so they can get what -- get all the facts together of that particular perpetrator and get it out to the public. And that's why they did that.
As you saw tonight, five eight to five 10. They had all that that was done through that particular tent investigation. BURNETT: And they -- right. And they were able to get that
information. I'm just looking here at the full -- the full extent of Josh's reporting. That that they, they said they were looking at reflections of light going against the items. So, they were actually playing with light in there to see the angle or what that might have been. I mean, they're looking at the level of detail here that they are doing is granular.
ZEINS: Yes. And also, you know, they use a lot of laser equipment that can actually pinpoint to the -- to the centimeter of what they're looking for. They probably had someone stand in the height with someone that looked like the perp, and they can actually measure and actually compare even the way the person would move, they would do the same type of imaging.
BURNETT: And they could do that. And also the shoe size, as you were saying, they could look, they had the need to do that in the darkness, but they can look and measure the exact size of each of those tiles.
ZEINS: The tiles were the same size. You know, many years ago when I used to investigate homicides, we used to set up tents like that. But what we would do if, say we had a pillowcase or say we had something where the elements outside weren't going to affect it, we would use Krazy glue, the crime scene groups would use Krazy glue, and they would heat it up. And the particles are so microscopic that when they'd fall down, say on a piece of evidence like say paper or a pillowcase or something, they would form the fingerprint. And just amazing how where we are today versus then.
BURNETT: The detail. But even then that you were able to do that with something like Krazy.
All right. Wally, thank you very much.
And next, KFILE with an exclusive report on the Goldman Sachs executive who Jeffrey Epstein once called his great defender. Were now learning more about just how deep their friendship was, including an XOXO sign off on an email and talk of visiting Epstein's island.
And a federal judge blocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth efforts to punish Senator Mark Kelly for telling troops that they can refuse illegal orders.
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BURNETT: New tonight, an exclusive KFILE report uncovering new details about top Goldman Sachs executive and former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. A review of hundreds of emails between Epstein and Ruemmler, a woman he once called his quote, great defender shows discussions about Epstein's legal and reputational troubles, as well as more personal communications like plans for a proposed trip to Epstein's island and gifts he'd given her.
Ruemmler has repeatedly said she regrets ever knowing Epstein, and that she had, quote no knowledge of any new or ongoing unlawful activity on his part. That's her quote.
OUTFRONT now, KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski, who has been breaking all of this reporting.
So, Andrew, what have you found?
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Well, Erin, these new messages reveal even more details about Kathy Ruemmler relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a relationship that, according to these emails, both of them described as a friendship. There are hundreds of email exchanges between the two. Some of the messages they discussed Epstein's legal battles and reputational problems after his 2008 conviction. Other communications between the two include plans for a proposed trip to Epstein's island and responses to gifts he'd given Ruemmler.
In one instance, she wrote, quote, totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today. Jeffrey boots, handbag and watch.
Now, in some of these back and forth messages, Ruemmler discussed personal matters in her life. She expressed gratitude for their, quote, "friendship" sometimes concluded her messages to Epstein with the sign off XO and XOXO.
There's one example we found where Ruemmler sent Epstein a message on his 62nd birthday in 2015 to wish him well, writing I hope you enjoy the day with your one true love.
[19:50:08]
Adding a smiley face.
Epstein replied with a raunchy note and an apparent reference to masturbation, writing, they say men usually give a name to their penis as it would be inappropriate to make love to a total stranger.
Now after receiving Epstein's racy reply, Ruemmler responded, "Hard to believe there is still an open question about whether men are the inferior gender."
BURNETT: Okay. So what has Ruemmler said about this message?
KACZYNSKI: Well, Erin, we asked him about that and they referred this exchange. Ruemmler and her communications team referred CNN questions about this to her attorney, Tom Clare.
And this is what he told us. He said, quote, "The fact is Ms. Ruemmler does not make any statement about Epstein's penis. She does not reference it. She does not joke about it. She does not banter with Epstein about it. She does not accede to Epstein's unsolicited, gratuitous remarks about men and their penises. Nothing.
Her participation in the entire exchange in, I think he meant, is limited to wishing Epstein a happy birthday, ridiculing Epstein for the remark and exiting the exchange. BURNETT: Okay. So, the files also reveal new details about how Ruemmler advised Epstein regarding some of his legal and reputational problems. So, what more can you tell us about that tonight?
KACZYNSKI: Well, yeah, that's right, Erin. In one exchange from February 2015, Ruemmler addressed a crime victim's rights act lawsuit brought by Epstein's accusers. That's the lawsuit which sought to reopen his so-called sweetheart plea deal from 2008. Ruemmler wrote to Epstein, I told you that the CVRA case is about money. And in another message, after inquiring about which lawyer was handling the case, Ruemmler wrote, victims rights, my ass.
In another message from July 2015, Ruemmler forwarded Epstein a "New York Times" story which featured critics of sex offender registries like the one Epstein had been listed on for years by then. "Did you see the New York Times story re misapplication of sex offender registry? Thinking about whether there is an opportunity there?" Ruemmler wrote.
Now, a spokesperson for Ruemmler told CNN in a statement that Epstein, quote, "sought informal advice and she provided feedback based on her understanding at the time without any formal involvement."
BURNETT: Okay. Well, you also found emails that show Ruemmler responding to an invitation from Epstein to visit that infamous private Caribbean island, right?
KACZYNSKI: Yeah, that's right. Absolutely.
According to the newly released files, Ruemmler at one point inquired about taking a day trip to Epstein's private island. In a January 16th, 2017 email, that you can see right here, Epstein asked if he could have a plane pick her up in Saint Lucia to fly her to, quote, the island. Ruemmler replied, asking can we take a day trip to the island on Saturday or is it too far?
Emails then show a week later, Epstein appearing to coordinate a private jet to pick her up and referencing a copy of Ruemmler's passport. This trip appears to have fallen through though, with Ruemmler writing two days later, there was, quote, still too much risk in the air. Later that year, Erin, the topic of the island actually came up again in messages between the two after Hurricane Irma damaged the island. Ruemmler mused about traveling there to help Epstein clean up, writing you know how much I like physical labor. It's unclear whether Ruemmler ever visited the island, and she has denied ever going there.
BURNETT: Okay, so what is she saying about these emails, then?
KACZYNSKI: So, Erin, Jennifer Connelly, Ruemmler spokesperson, declined to answer some of the detailed questions from CNN. But she told us this, quote, "Ms. Ruemmler has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide. Nothing in the record suggests otherwise. Jeffrey Epstein was a man of a thousand faces. Ms. Ruemmler only saw the one he put on to win people over and gain credibility and acceptance. Her views were shaped by that, and his denials of any wrongdoing other than what he had pled guilty to years prior.
Ms. Ruemmler has been clear and consistent from the outset. She knew him through her work as a criminal defense attorney, shared a client with him, received referrals from him, and was friendly in that professional context. At times, Epstein sought informal advice and she provided feedback based on her understanding at the time, without any formal involvement. Ms. Ruemmler has deep sympathy for those harmed by Epstein, and if she knew then what she knows now, she never would have dealt with him. Aaron
BURNETT: All right. Andrew Kaczynski from KFILE with more incredible reporting on this story. Thank you.
OUTFRONT next, a major victory for Senator Mark Kelly. A federal judge shutting down Pete Hegseth's efforts to punish Kelly for telling troops not to follow illegal orders.
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[19:58:58]
BURNETT: Tonight, a major victory for Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy Captain. A federal judge blocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from punishing Kelly for telling members of the military to ignore illegal orders. Judge Richard Leon, writing in a scathing 29-page ruling and I quote, "This court has all it needs to conclude that defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees."
Hegseth attempted to reduce Kelly's retirement, rank and pay after Kelly appeared in the video that you see on the screen alongside other Democratic lawmakers. Despite the ruling, Kelly says he wouldn't be surprised if the administration tries to go after him again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): I wouldn't put anything past them. Of course, you know, this president has a habit of doubling down on shitty ideas on bad precedent, on breaking the law, on violating people's the constitutional rights of Americans. He doubles down on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: As for doubling down, Hegseth already is vowing to quote immediately appeal the decision.
Thanks so much to all of you for joining us on this Thursday.
"AC360" with Anderson Cooper begins right now.
