Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
More Republicans Calling For GOP Rep To Resign Amid Affairs Allegations; New Activity At Guthrie Home; Cuba Kills 4 On U.S. Boat. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired February 25, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:23]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, Republicans calling for GOP Congressman Tony Gonzales to go amid allegations he had an affair with a former staffer who killed herself after setting herself on fire. Her husband is my guest.
And a flurry of activity tonight at Nancy Guthrie's home. People in suits seen entering her home. Major developments there possibly. We're live in Tucson.
And breaking news this hour, Cuba says it killed four people on a speedboat coming from Florida. So, what happened? Are these Americans? The White House now finally responding.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, growing calls tonight from Republicans for one of their own to go. Calls for Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales to step down. And it's coming amid allegations he had a torrid affair with a former staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, who later died after setting herself on fire. A horrific story, and outcome. Sexual and graphic text messages have also surfaced, allegedly between Gonzales and Santos-Aviles.
One message provided OUTFRONT from Regina's husband reads as follows, with Gonzales allegedly writing, "Then send me a sexy pic". Santos- Aviles responding, "I swear my life has been a telenovela for the past seven days. You really don't want a hot picture of me." Gonzales allegedly responds, "Yes, I do. Hurry."
Well, her husband says there are so much more there. And in a moment, I'm going to be speaking with him. He wants Gonzales, who is refusing to resign and running for reelection, to be held accountable.
And more Republicans tonight say they agree.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): Male harassing a female employee. I just can't stomach it, dude. I got a wife and a daughter. He needs to go.
REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): Tony Gonzales needs to resign. He's a disgusting pig, and the speaker should do something about it.
REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): Obviously, Tony has a lot of reflection to do, and it's obviously going to be something that will likely impact our margins, but I don't -- I don't make an excuse for what he did, and I would encourage him to consider resigning.
REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Given what I have seen so far, he should -- he should resign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Those are obviously three Republicans and Republican -- Republican Congressman Brandon Gill is posting, "America deserves better. Tony should drop out of the race."
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie also posting, "I'm joining Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert and Anna Paulina Luna in calling for Representative Tony Gonzales to resign immediately. Where are the other men in the GOP?"
Well, that's a good question. Where are they? We're going to get to that in a moment because Congressman Gonzales is a married father of six, and perhaps not just the affair, it's that who he is is defined his entire platform and his time in Congress.
He has spoken openly about how important his Catholic faith is to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): The earlier you can find and gravitate to faith in your life, the stronger you will be because we all go through trials and tribulations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Tonight though, Gonzales is defiant, telling our Manu Raju that he is not going anywhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What are those text messages correct? Are they accurate?
GONZALES: I am not going to resign. I work every day -- I work every day for the people of Texas.
RAJU: But are those text messages, are they -- are they accurate? Are those real text messages you sent?
GONZALES: I'm not going to resign.
RAJU: Did you have an extramarital affair with the staffer?
GONZALES: What you've seen is not all the facts. And there'll be -- there'll be an ample time for all of that to come out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Obviously, you can hear what he said and didn't say there perhaps very significant. But tonight, there are still a number of men in the Republican Party who are still apparently waiting for more to come out, which includes the most powerful Republican in the House, the Speaker Mike Johnson, who, of course, has a razor thin majority and can't afford to lose another Republican vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The allegations are alarming and detestable. And I said to him publicly and privately, he's got to address that directly and head on with his constituents. Theres a primary there in less than a week these things will play out. So we're allowing that to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Sunlen Serfaty is OUTFRONT on Capitol Hill to begin our coverage tonight.
And, Sunlen, how much momentum within the GOP is building against Congressman Gonzales? I mean, we've heard those who have spoken out, spoken out. Maybe it's not many, but they are speaking out very strongly.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Erin, increasing pressure. It certainly is growing on congressman Gonzales tonight on Capitol Hill.
And as you noted, you have this handful of five Republicans, members of his own party, of course, who have called for him to resign.
[19:05:02]
But there have been a handful of others who have called for him to drop his reelection bid. And as you noted, it's the fierceness of how they spoke out about their colleague. They really didn't mince words. And you played a lot of the great sound from up here on Capitol Hill today of members reacting, calling him a pig, saying that something they can't stomach, calling this gross. That suggests, of course that this is not going to blow over easily for the congressman.
Notable today, of course, that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson summoned him to his office.
And Johnson himself, he is walking this very delicate political tightrope, as he always is, given that he has one of the closest margins of the -- in the majority in history up here on Capitol Hill so he cannot afford to lose another vote. He knows that, the congressman knows that. Many up here are noting that as well.
And so it's interesting in Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's response to this controversy, him calling it detestable, alarming, very clear how he feels personally about that. But as far as the congressman standing up here on Capitol Hill, Speaker Johnson saying, we need to let this process play out indicating that there are investigations in Texas. And of course, those up here on Capitol Hill happening.
But the real test, of course, is that upcoming primary that Gonzales has on Tuesday, March 3rd in Texas. He is notably running against someone that he did two years ago back in 2024, Brandon Herrera. He's a YouTube personality.
And it's interesting here how close this race was, Erin. Gonzales beat him in a runoff by only 354 votes.
So all the Republicans up here on Capitol Hill really hinting here that potentially his future, of course, lies in what those results are on Tuesday and potentially letting the Texas voters decide what exactly Gonzales's future is.
BURNETT: All right. Sunlen, thank you very much.
SERFATY: Thanks
BURNETT: And OUTFRONT now, Adrian Aviles. He is Regina's husband and he's here tonight for his first television interview.
And, Adrian, I am grateful for your time.
I mean, obviously, tonight, Congressman Gonzales is defiant. He is not resigning. He is continuing to run for reelection.
What do you want the world to know about him?
ADRIAN AVILES, LATE WIFE HAD ALLEGED AFFAIR WITH REP. TONY GONZALES: You know, I was pretty -- pretty clear in some of my messages that I put out there, you know, you know, the guy's a predator. You know, he's -- he's continued to lie to the American people, his constituents of Texas 23. Texas 23, the district, you know, and that's -- I'm at this point, I'm quite frankly, I was exhausted and tired of all the all of the running around line that he continued to do.
BURNETT: I mean, I mentioned earlier the text messages that you shared with us and one allegedly from the congressman to Regina that you shared, you know says, send me a sexy pic. And then there's another one, Adrian, where Regina writes, "Please tell me you didn't just hire me because I was hot," to which Gonzales you say replies "No way."
Do you have any doubt that these messages and the exchanges that you saw are from him?
AVILES: Oh, absolutely. And that's why we went the direction that we went. We had Cellebrite dump on the phone. So, it's forensically proven that it is him. We did all forensics analysis on everything. So, there's no way that he can say that it's A.I. That we're lying, that we're making anything up. We're essentially saying that, you know, this is real. This is the
person that he is. He lied to everybody about it. And you know, I put it out there for everybody to see, against my want to actually do it. I have an eight-year-old son that I have a duty to protect.
And, you know, by me coming out and exploiting this, you know, I put him at risk as well, in the future, being able to see all this and putting it out there on front street. I, my son has an image of his mother, and I don't want that to be tarnished. And I dont want to be the fault of it either.
BURNETT: So, when did you find out about their relationship?
AVILES: I found out about it, I guess -- I couldn't actually -- actually, I could probably tell you the date. It was June 31st -- excuse me. May 31st, it was the night that I found out about it. It was a Friday night.
BURNETT: It was a Friday night. So, you remember. I mean, you and Regina, I know, had been together, what, 21 years? So. So she came home?
(CROSSTALK)
AVILES: Yeah. We were -- we've been on and off. Yeah, we've been on and off for 21 years, you know, when you know somebody for that long, you know. You get to know their tendencies. And she had been acting a little off for the past couple of days, and I don't know, I -- you know, I've never been a person to look through her phone.
[19:10:04]
I never knew -- we had an open relationship. Our as far as, like, our devices, you know, our devices, we had an open relationship.
BURNETT: Yeah.
AVILES: I could leave my phone down and she could leave her phone down. And she has the passcode there, I have the passcode There was no hiding anything, and, you know, and she had been acting a little strange. And that's when I felt like I needed to go through her phone and that's when I found out about everything that was going on.
BURNETT: So, you know, look at the heart of this is just an incredible tragedy, right? Her death, your son not having a mother, the just the horror of the tragedy of her death. Do you think that the alleged affair with Congressman Gonzales was behind her tragic death?
AVILES: Look, I'm not saying he's the one that went out there and did -- did it himself, and I'm not saying that. But yeah, he played a role in it, you know? He predatorized my wife, you know, and he pushed her to the sense of having an affair. I mean, I made that evident in the messages that I released.
BURNETT: Now, he's just told our Manu Raju who's, of course, our Capitol Hill reporter. Gonzales says, look, you guys haven't seen all the facts. Theres going to be ample time for all of that to come out.
Does this change anything for you when you know and you go back to that Friday night in May, does him saying that mean anything?
AVILES: Actually, it makes me even angrier because again, he's deflecting and you know, he just -- he has -- the man has no values. You know, he runs his whole campaign on family values and he runs everything, you know, saying that he's some family man. You know, he's actually quite of a sick man.
You know, I have all the messages that shared between them to and you know the things that, you know, I just released a tip of the iceberg of the things that this man was telling her. I released just what was -- you know, enough information for the people to understand who this person and who they were dealing with. If I were to release everything you know it. You I again, my biggest thing is, is protecting my son. I will not release, you know the salacious messages that went back and forth much deeper than what -- and much more graphic rather than what I presented to the American people.
BURNETT: All right. So, as you're saying, there's a lot more that that you say, is there? What will you do, Adrian, if he --if he doesn't resign, if he continues here? What will you do?
AVILES: I've already done my part. You know, as far as letting people know who he is, that's up to the -- as far, again, Erin, this is not a political thing for me.
BURNETT: Yeah.
AVILES: I want everybody to know that as well. I don't care two seats about the whole political matter behind it. I don't care that, you know, it's two seats in the -- I don't care about all of that. You know, I care about facts. I care about what he has done and how he's continued to lie on Regina's name.
You know, he's sitting there and just he's a -- he's bald faced, lied about it, you know about everything. And to say that the facts are going to come out, I would bet that he does not want me to release all of the messages that show how gross of a man he is.
BURNETT: So for you, I guess. Adrian, are you saying that this is about justice for her and for people knowing the truth of who he is, that this is -- this is about her, right, for you?
AVILES: Absolutely. Yeah. Of course. This is you know, this is this is not only about her, but this is also about my son and showing my son that, you know, we stand up to cowards. This guy is a coward. And we're going to stand up to him, and we're not going to allow him to bully us like he's bullied everybody else and continue to lie about it.
I'm not going to allow that. I'm not going to sit aside anymore and allow that to happen anymore. I think in his heart, he didn't believe that I would -- I would have come out because, you know, of course, I was trying to protect the name of Regina and of course, you know, as well as to protect my son that he doesn't have to further see this in the future and go on YouTube and, you know Google her name or, you know my, my son, he barely misses his mother every day.
And he looks her up every day. My son is just nonstop talks about his mother, you know, and I felt like that was my duty to him and her, as, you know as the situation set.
BURNETT: Well, we showed some, some images of them together, obviously with his face blurred. But, you know, it -- clear how much they loved each other no matter --
AVILES: They had an inseparable bond. They had an inseparable bond.
My son, you know, he no longer has a mother. And, you know you know, the other morning, we were having breakfast.
[19:15:01]
And, you know, just day before yesterday and, you know he grabs a particular Gatorade out of the refrigerator and he's -- it's a pink one. And he's like, you know, we had just gotten him, and he was like, oh, you got pink ones. And I'm -- I was like, hey, don't worry about it, I'll -- that'll drink the pink ones. And he's like, no, I'm going to drink these. These were moms favorite color Gatorades.
And you know, it tore me to pieces. I had to go to the restroom and shed a tear because, you know, most kids get to wake up in the morning and kiss their mother's good morning and get to say goodbye before they go to school. My son now has to remember his mother through a color of a Gatorade and his memory of her, you know, is through objects, smells and things now. And it's not being able to actually have her in his life anymore, you know? So, it's heartbreaking -- it's heartbreaking.
BURNETT: Truly, it can only, you know think -- think to imagine.
AVILES: Absolutely.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Adrian, thank you. Thank you so much.
AVILES: You're welcome, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Gretchen Carlson is OUTFRONT with me now. Her organization Lift Our Voices fights for survivors against harassment and hostile work environments.
So, Gretchen, I mean, you know, Adrian coming out and being willing to talk about this he says to protect his son who's Googling his mother, he wants the truth out about what happened. So that's why he's doing this.
How powerful is that in a moment like this, when you have people on Capitol Hill clearly making this about a one vote majority?
GRETCHEN CARLSON, JOURNALIST: Uh-huh. Well, first of all, it was a great interview. I know it's a difficult interview because I've been there before in those kinds of interviews. But I have to say, you know, for the child of this, you want him to be able to have the courageous memory of his mother, right? And as the husband said not bow down to an alleged coward.
The thing that I really want to point out here, though, is that this is different than just having an affair --
BURNETT: Right.
CARLSON: -- because this is a boss subordinate relationship. And some of the texts that you did not show twice, Regina says after she's asked allegedly about her favorite position, she said, this is going too far, boss. I mean, she laid it out right there directly about the subordinate-boss relationship, which is illegal, to have this kind of power over somebody who's underneath you. Again, in another back and forth. This is too far, Tony.
So, to me, this takes it into the legal realm as opposed to just having an affair, which apparently is now acceptable in politics. But this is not acceptable. And it really upsets me that we have the same group of people that are pushing the Epstein file release, as far as the Republicans also pushing for him to resign here, they seem to be the only ones that see this clearly.
BURNETT: I mean, that diagram is very is a very big overlap when you look at Massie and Boebert and Mace, and there are others, Anna Paulina Luna, there are a couple of others.
But you know, is there a world where he keeps his job and gets reelected when you have a story like this? I mean, the tragedy of this, you know, it isn't just the hypocrisy with his platform and what he runs on. And then there's also the potential illegality as you talk about it. There's also the absolutely horrific manner in which she died. I mean, she set herself on fire. It's horrific.
CARLSON: It's horrific. And you ask if he can be reelected in the environment we live in now, yes. I mean, I do have some solace and hope that it is up to the voters, you know, and in the last election, this isn't about Republican or Democrat, by the way. I mean, he's facing off against another Republican. This is -- this is a heavily Republican district.
BURNETT: Yeah.
CARLSON: But he lost only -- or he won only by 364 votes last time. So, you know, the voters will decide that does not take the onus off of somebody like the speaker of the House and other Republicans to have a spine and speak up about this.
BURNETT: Well, and what about the onus off the president of the United States, who has endorsed Gonzales?
CARLSON: Yes.
BURNETT: He came -- he's played a role in this race. He came out. It's not as if he can say, oh, I'm not going to touch it. He did touch it. He came out. He endorsed Gonzales in December. So far, silence.
CARLSON: Well, I don't expect to hear him taking that back. I mean remember, President Trump was accused by 12 women of sexual misconduct before he was elected president the first time and that had no repercussions. And he was elected again. So, you know, the one --
BURNETT: Right. Is that, in his mind, perhaps opening the door to allegations that are out there right now, for example, related to Epstein?
CARLSON: Potentially or one might argue that he doesn't think that this is that serious of an issue because, you know, he was elected twice and the people looked at his policies that they liked, as opposed to how he allegedly treated women so, you know, this is something that that I want to look at also in a positive light the fact that we do have some people saying that he needs to resign is a step forward in this movement, and, you know, I'm not so sure we would have gotten even this far just a couple of years ago.
BURNETT: Yeah. And that -- and that is fair. I mean, as -- and at the heart of this such a horrific tragedy. But that is so important and true.
All right, Gretchen, thank you.
[19:20:00]
And next, we have significant activity outside Nancy Guthrie's home. Look it's been almost 25 days. And something -- something happened today that hasn't happened in a long time. More than our reporter has seen in a week at that house. Several people in suits in and out of the house, So we're going to go live to the ground. The latest there.
And KFILE with new reporting on how Jeffrey Epstein leveraged his influence and promises of investment to influence top officials.
And the captain of the U.S. Olympic women's hockey team responding to Trump when he said, right, he'd probably be impeached if he didn't invite the women's team to join the White House -- to join the men's at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news, a sudden burst of new activity at Nancy Guthrie's home today. Multiple people in suits were seen both inside and outside the home and they were there for hours. Now, it is not yet clear who they were or why they were there now, more than three weeks -- almost four weeks since she disappeared.
But several large vehicles, including the SUV and a truck, also could be seen. Now, this is the most significant activity that our reporters have seen at the home in about a week. And it comes a day after Savannah Guthrie offered $1 million for the return of her mother.
Now, it is an offer that the FBI says has led to at least 750 credible tips so far.
[19:25:01]
Ed Lavandera is OUTFRONT in Tucson. He's been reporting on this.
And, Ed, you know, you've seen this activity at the House and you've also, you know, you're the one who said, well, look, I haven't seen anything like this in almost a week so what do you know about the activity? Who was there? Why? What was happening?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT : Right. Well, over the last several of these visits, investigators have described it to us as routine work. So, it could very well be that, that's happened in the past. But I think it's been about a little more than a week since we've seen any kind of federal investigators out here at the scene.
Last week, they were at a neighbor's property looking at a camera on the corner of a property, and then back at the house but, you know, there's a significant amount of time that they were seen here at the home. They were walking around the sides of it, going through the backyard once again. That was very common in the early weeks of this investigation.
So, whether or not this is routine work that is being done it could very well be that or it could just, you know, could be perhaps something that is based off of what we know to be true is that after the Guthrie family announced this million dollar reward, perhaps something came in. FBI officials would not confirm how many more credible tips they've received today. So, the last number we have from them is about 750. Presumably that number has gone up.
Overall, investigator -- FBI investigators say they've received 23,000 tips in all since this investigation started almost a month ago. So significant work that's still being done. But the bottom line is still no word on where Nancy Guthrie is.
BURNETT: Which is just stunning.
All right. Thank you very much, Ed, who has been in Tucson from the start.
And retired NYPD homicide detective Wally Zeins is back with me.
And, Wally, as I said, 25 days since she went missing and now, Ed reporting on this, you know, sudden activity that hasn't seen anything like it in a week. And you've got all these people in suits. What do you think is happening?
WALLACE ZEINS, FORMER NYPD HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Well, first of all, when you look at that picture, you see the woman and the two other gentlemen that are with her. First of all, FBI agents that are working this case or law enforcement do not wear high heels. That's the first thing.
If you notice, she's wearing high heels. Makes me think that she is the U.S. attorney or someone who might be prosecuting this case in the future and they might have some information from a tip where that person has to go back to that crime scene and see certain areas of that particular area in case they do have something.
And remember, the law enforcement community there is keeping a lot of information to their vest.
BURNETT: So that's very interesting. But if someone -- if you're right, and her attire matters, right? Her wearing high heels, if that indicates that, at what -- what level of seriousness or how far along do you think it would be where you'd have someone who was possibly a prosecutor or in a role like that actually boots on, the high heels on the ground?
ZEINS: Well, keep in mind the most important word in this whole investigation is called probable cause. They might be on to something of a person of interest or persons of interest that they're looking into that may or may not come out to something positive or negative but they still want to have their guns loaded. They want to have a tactical plan that's ready in the event that they have to go forward and have immediate press release.
BURNETT: So, when Savannah Guthrie put out the million dollar offer, we know obviously, it's led to a lot of tips. You know, but we know originally, they told her, don't do that. The sheriff had said, don't do that. They thought it would lead to too many tips and noncredible ones, right, was the argument that was made at the beginning. So, the family waited.
Was that the right thing to do?
ZEINS: Well, keep in mind, the FBI, they -- their unit within kidnappings, they have a profile that comes into this program immediately. They look at the possibilities of the different potential suspects that might be, and they know how to program this because they're not going to come and say, all right were going to offer the million dollars right away because that person, whoever it might be, may want $10 million, $20 million. They see they can get one. They'll go for another.
Money talks in this type of situation, the larger the amount they're going to get, more people sending tips, as we've seen today. But the important thing is they know how the program, from their past experience, and I believe that, you know, the amount of the 22,500 bucks I think it was they put in for the first time --
BURNETT: Yeah.
ZEINS: -- and then they started to raise it because the tips weren't coming in enough.
BURNETT: Right? It went 50. Then, Harvey Levin was getting other things. It went up to 75. They up, they upped. ZEINS: And now, it's $1,200,000.
BURNETT: So, I -- you know, people talk about this. They say, can anybody believe that in a case this high profile with what they have that she is still -- that they still don't know where she is? Is -- do you think that this this case breaks or is this a cold case?
ZEINS: It's never a cold case. They're always going to have someone working on this. It's an extremely high profile case.
BURNETT: Yes.
ZEINS: And it's a worldwide case. It's not just that area. It's people from all over, investigative agencies, from the CIA, to the FBI, to Israel, in fact, is involved helping with this particular case.
[19:30:00]
It's all over the world, and they will not give up on this. I'm more than sure that they'll come up somewhere along the line and in relationship. You go with the premise that she is still alive.
BURNETT: Yes. And we all hope that, as Savannah said, they will accept it if she isn't, but they are still hopeful that she is, and praying that she is.
All right. Wally, thank you very much.
And next, KFILE sifting through text messages from Jeffrey Epstein. You know, we've heard a lot about emails, but he's going through the text messages and these offer a whole new glimpse into how Epstein used his vast wealth to -- well, we'll explain.
Plus, breaking news also this hour, Mexico's military patrolling the streets after the killing of a top drug boss. Should Mexicans and Americans be prepared for a whole another wave of attacks? Well, Mexico's ambassador to the United States breaking his silence. He's our guest tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:35:35]
BURNETT: OUTFRONT tonight, quote, "We got U", spelled with a U, the letter. That's what the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands told Jeffrey Epstein just months before Epstein's arrest in 2019. And obviously, of course, more than a decade after he was already convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution back in 2008.
Newly released Justice Department documents show that as regulators investigated unauthorized construction on one of Epstein's two private islands, issuing stop work orders and weighing potential fines, Epstein appealed directly to the island's governor for help. Text messages uncovered by KFILE show Governor Albert Bryan Jr. telling Epstein he had asked one of the regulators to, quote, hold everything until speaking with him, and later sought the recusal of the commissioner overseeing the dispute.
KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski joins me now.
And you know, Andrew, this is so important. As we get to the heart of Jeffrey Epstein and how he had the power and money that he had and how he wielded it, and this entire circle. So, this gets to the influence and how he wielded it. What do these messages reveal?
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yeah. And you hit it right there. These messages, they offer a rare window into how Epstein operated in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he leveraged his wealth, business footprint and promises of investment to try to influence local officials. Now, I want to give people a little background here. Epstein had deep roots in the Virgin Islands. He bought his private island, Little Saint James, in the 1990s.
He later expanded. You can see them both there. He later expanded his footprint in 2016 and purchased neighboring Great Saint James, and the permits show that he had plans to build docks roads, residences and other development. And this is where these texts with the governor come into play.
Now, by December 2018, regulators were scrutinizing construction on Great Saint James, the Virgin Islands department of planning and natural resources had issued a stop work order and began reviewing potential violations. Epstein then reaches out directly to then the newly elected governor, Democrat Albert Bryan Jr.
Look at this exchange between the two. Epstein complained about potential fines, and Bryan said he spoke to Jean-Pierre Oriol, that is the commissioner of the department who they're calling JP in these texts. And he asked him -- Bryan said he had asked him to quote, hold everything until he and the attorney spoke to me.
Later, Epstein complains that the same commissioner, JP, was, quote, going after me in the press, to which Bryan responded that he had asked the commissioner to recuse himself. And then in another subsequent message, Bryan wrote, I asked him to recuse himself and concede on all previous permit requests.
Now, the documents don't show whether any enforcement decisions were ultimately changed. But what they do show is this, there was an active regulatory dispute Epstein was communicating directly with the governor of the territory and the governor was telling him that he was intervening on his behalf.
Later, when Bryan was asked under oath in a 2023 deposition whether he had received he -- Epstein received any special favors or treatment from him, he answered repeatedly and simply, no.
BURNETT: All right. Andrew, obviously your reporting is very illuminating on that front and also shows this is not just a few text messages. Okay? So again, we get to power and how he was wielding it.
KACZYNSKI: Three months worth of text messages.
BURNETT: Three months worth.
KACZYNSK: From January, and they end in June. And obviously Epstein is then arrested in July.
BURNETT: Okay. And as we point out, this is all happened -- this all went down this whole back and forth 11 years after he was.
KACZYNSKI: And after "The Miami Herald's" investigative series, which was in the November of 2018.
BURNETT: Right. So, all of this then is known. There were meetings, there were attempts to meet as well that you've done here. What do the records show?
KACZYNSKI: Well, Erin, that's right. The messages suggest this was not their first contact .Emails from September 2018, while Bryan was campaigning for governor, show aids coordinating a meeting between Bryan Epstein -- and Epstein at Epstein's financial firm in the Virgin Islands In April 2019, as this dispute was unfolding, Epstein texted Bryan right there, he says can you spare 15 minutes? To which Bryan replied, for you, absolutely.
Epstein and Bryan then coordinated the meeting and would appear to be the office of Epstein's longtime Virgin Islands tax attorney. There are also emails referencing additional meetings and phone calls, including again, outreach through his longtime Virgin Islands attorney.
So, the documents show an ongoing line of communication, both during Bryan's campaign and later, as Epstein was dealing with the regulators. Now we reached out to Bryan and his spokespeople many, many times over the past five days and we did not hear back from any of them.
BURNETT: All right. And of course, you'll let us know if you do.
[19:40:00]
It is -- it is amazing, though, all of this every day, new information coming out, digging through these files. And I say that in the context of, you know, we're weeks past the stuff coming out.
We're getting more every day. Even so, and Ro Khanna said on this show last night that we only have he said half of the documents that are out there and the half we don't have, he says is the bad half think about that.
All right. Next, breaking news, Cuba says it killed four people on a Florida registered boat. So, who were they? Were they Americans? The White House just commenting on this.
And the captain of the Olympic women's hockey team now just responding to President Trump after he said he'd be impeached for not inviting the women's team to the White House, along with the men.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: Breaking news now, Cuba says it has killed four people and injured six more on a Florida registered speedboat. An unbelievable mystery unfolding at this hour. Details are murky at this moment, but here's what we know.
[19:45:03]
We know that Cuban officials say that its border guards returned fire after someone on a Florida registered boat shot at them.
Now, the nationalities of the people on the boat at this point are still unknown. But what we do know is that the White House is now involved. They're involved in this situation. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, says that the U.S. is going to independently verify the details around what happened.
David Culver is OUTFRONT.
And, you know, David, we suddenly got this headline today that you know, there were four people killed on a Florida speedboat off the coast of Cuba said, well, what's happening here? What more are you learning?
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Erin, I got that CNN alert. And then immediately I was getting text messages from folks in south Florida.
I'm going to tell you this. This could be that moment, that spark that according to several folks I've spoken to in south Florida, including lawmakers, could bring down the Cuban regime. Allow me a brief history moment, because if you go back 30 years and one day ago, it's then that the Cuban government shot down two civilian aircraft. They were assessed as they were brothers to the rescue, who were essentially looking in the waters between Florida and Cuba to see if folks who had left Cuba were stranded and then could identify them and have boats picked them up and bring them to the U.S.
Those jets that were shooting them down were Cuban jets. The Cubans argue that happened in Cuban airspace. The U.S. at the time said no. Those were international waters.
A week ago, I was with family members of those pilots who were killed, along with lawmakers in south Florida. They were gathered for the 30th anniversary, calling for the indictment of Raul Castro. Now, gathered there were Congressman Gimenez, Congresswoman Salazar and Diaz-Balart. All of them are, of course, Cuban American. And they said, had that incident happened today with Americans involved, and we don't know if Americans were involved in this latest incident, then they believe that would have been enough for President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also Cuban American, to bring down the Cuban regime.
So that's why I say this is a moment that the details are going to come forward. And if we learn that those are, in fact, U.S. citizens or permanent residents, that will change the whole trajectory of where this goes. BURNETT: Right and we know certainly what secretary of state, what --
how -- what Rubio wants, right? So, if he's given a clear path, as you indicate to that -- the door is open.
All right. So obviously that's crucial. And another possible turning point here. You're also though as I'm looking at you obviously standing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where you've been reporting on the violence and the chaos and now the fallout after Mexico's drug cartel boss was killed.
So, what is the feeling there on the ground tonight? The Mexican government wants to say that this is under control and over. Is it?
CULVER: They definitely want that to be the message that they're putting out there right now. And I just spoke with the secretary of tourism for Jalisco, the state here, and she said it's safe for tourists. She knows that's perhaps the most searched term when it comes to Mexico right now. Is Mexico safe to travel to especially for folks who are on spring break and looking to come to events?
So, the reality is people feel very at ease in this moment for the most part. You've got tourists who even say they've been here in years past. They're going to come back. They were here through the incident. They feel like that was an isolated moment, and they agree that security has been beefed up and you see a presence.
And I think we have some images and you see that there are aircraft that are patrolling. We were with the marines in fact, and they're on the streets here. They're also doing a lot of sanitizing of the outbreak from Sunday, and they're cleaning up some of the burnt out cars. They're trying to really show that the perception of safety, at the very least and that's how one of the captains in the marines told me that they're describing this as trying to restore the perception of safety so that folks feel at ease to come here.
Ultimately though, I think it's going to be a question of if this really was an isolated outbreak or if there's more to come, and that will determine if they can really continue the messaging that things are fine here. At the moment, I do admit it is relatively at ease and calm and feels like a paradise.
BURNETT: Yeah. It obviously looks that way. It's the reason people like to go there is where you're standing right now.
David Culver, thank you very much in Puerto Vallarta.
And OUTFRONT now, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma.
And Ambassador Moctezuma, I appreciate your time tonight.
So, what is the situation on the ground now with the cartels in Mexico?
ESTEBAN MOCTEZUMA, MEXICAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Erin, thank you for having me. You know that on Sunday, the government of Mexico made a huge win by taking a one of the most important drug lords of the region and part of his team and, that created, of course, the movement of its people. But you know, the guy that was coordinating all this retaliation also was caught by the army. So, they stopped doing that because they lost all the coordination they had.
BURNETT: So, do you believe that we effectively decapitated that cartel then if you say it's not just El Mencho, but also the, I guess, the command chief of the cartel?
MOCTEZUMA: Well, it was a major win, of course. And a, you know, the commitment of the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, is to continue fighting to have a secure and free of drugs country. And also, to fight against the trafficking of arms from the U.S. to Mexico. And we are collaborating and coordinating efforts with the U.S., and with the support of intel from the U.S. Army.
BURNETT: And I want to ask you about that intel support in a moment, because I know it's core to an important issue here. But first, Ambassador Moctezuma, I spoke to an American who was in Puerto Vallarta with his wife on vacation, and they were stranded, as many were.
And, you know, they looked out the window, right? And they saw an exploding fuel delivery truck, you know, burning cars, right? He described it like a war zone. I'll play part of what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EUGENE MARCHENKO, AMERICAN TOURIST STRANDED IN MEXICO: To wake up to smoke coming into your building. And you're not knowing what's going on in cars, just on fire, it's definitely -- it definitely looked like a war zone out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Ambassador, is it safe for Americans to travel to Mexico now?
MOCTEZUMA: Yes. You know that, all the travel alerts from the U.S. government have been lifted already, and that's a very good sign that it's safe to travel because what happened was that there was this retaliation because the people around -- in this drug lord didn't want the army to get to him and started also burning cars and busses. That should have been very scary for the people you have just showed.
But luckily, if you see, there is not one American civilian, one tourist that was hurt in any way during that day and we're back in in normality and we believe it's safe to travel to Mexico.
BURNETT: So, you know, back to this point that you made about U.S. intelligence. And the reason I said it's at the core of what happened here. President Sheinbaum, of course called out President Trump on this issue. She made it clear that the United States could not take credit for the killing of El Mencho because Trump appeared to do that of course, Ambassador, in the State of the Union Address, he did appear to do that. Let me just play your president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and her explanation of the operation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, MEXICAN PRESIDENT: Well, we have already explained what the collaboration was, which was essentially on intelligence, information. And the whole operation was carried out by the secretary of national defense as we have properly informed here.
We know President Trump, but the information we have given is correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Ambassador, she's making it very clear it was intelligence from the U.S. and no more. And the reason that she felt she had to make that so clear is because of what President Trump said in the State of the Union, which was this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Is he exaggerating the role of the United States when he said, we've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all?
MOCTEZUMA: Well, you know that we're working together, and we believe in the same goals to get rid of the violence that the cartels do and to help all the regions to be free of that threat and we're working together in that. Intel is very, very important. All the operations in the ground was done by the Mexican army. And we are very sad that 25 soldiers died in in this action, which is a lot of people that offer their lives in order to make Mexico, the U.S. and the region more secure.
I believe that the region is safer now than it was a week ago.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Ambassador Moctezuma, I appreciate your time tonight and thank you so much.
[19:55:03]
MOCTEZUMA: Thank you very much, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, the captain of the women's Olympic hockey team, breaking her silence after Trump said he'd be impeached if he didn't invite the women along with the men to Washington.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, a five-time Olympic medalist taking on President Trump. Hilary Knight is captain of the gold medal winning American hockey team. And she is slamming the president after he said he would, quote, "probably" be impeached if he didn't invite the women's team, along with the men's team, to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILARY KNIGHT, U.S. OLYMPIC WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM CAPTAIN: I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, and you know, the success of just women at the Olympics, carrying for team USA and having amazing gold medal feats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Trump made the comments after the FBI director, Kash Patel, put him on speakerphone when he was, you know, drinking beers in the locker room after the men's hockey team victory. Listen to the locker room talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I must tell you, were going to have to bring the women's team. You do know that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
TRUMP: I do believe I probably would be impeached, okay?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now contingent of the men's team attended Trump's State of the Union Address in Washington last night. The women's team respectfully declined the invitation.
Thanks so much to all of you as always for joining us.
"AC360" with Anderson begins right now.
