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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Ex-Prince Andrew Released "Under Investigation" After Arrest; Trump Says Decision On Iran Action Within "10-15 Days"; NATO European Defense Ministers Holding Talks On Ukraine; Mexican Officials: No Sign Nancy Guthrie Is In Mexico. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 20, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:25]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Friday, February 20th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested after new revelations in the Epstein files.

DANIELLE BENSKY, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: I think that we have hope now as survivors.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They must make a deal. Bad things will happen if it doesn't.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: President Trump is facing perhaps one of the most important decisions of his second term. What actions, if any, to take against Iran.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. experts refer to it as authoritarian A.I. China is using A.I. to turbocharge surveillance of its 1.4 billion people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

SOLOMON: New developments this morning in the extraordinary fall from grace for the former Prince Andrew. It is the biggest crisis to hit the British monarchy since the death of Princess Diana. Not long ago came word that police are once again searching Andrew Mountbatten- Windsor's former home, the Royal Lodge in Berkshire. Authorities had already finished their search of his current home in Norfolk. This follows his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mountbatten-Windsor was seen slouched down in the back of a Range Rover after his release from police custody on Thursday.

Now, the kings brother has not been charged but does remain under investigation. British authorities previously said that they were reviewing claims that he shared sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein while serving as trade envoy. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has not commented publicly on these more recent allegations.

King Charles, meantime, released a statement saying that authorities have the royal's full and wholehearted support for the investigation. He added the law must take its course. Notably, the king did not use the word brother when referring to the former prince now, the arrest is not related to any allegations of sexual misconduct.

But some survivors of Epstein's abuse are speaking out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELLE BENSKY, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: I think it's a small victory at this point, you know? I think that we have hope now as survivors and even though it feels like this might not be the charge that we wanted to see it still feels like a win because it's really demonstrating a misuse of power. So just to see that on display really means quite a lot to survivors, and I think it's hard to think about this day without Virginia Giuffre.

She's just been so incredibly instrumental to this fight. And I always say I use the analogy that she really dug this tunnel with her bare hands that we now have paved and get to walk through and help push the boulder through. So, I think that it's incredibly vindicating for her, but we really do want to see just a little bit more pressure on just those sex trafficking charges and making sure that they're really being linked to the Epstein and Maxwell case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, who is live with us outside of Buckingham palace.

Salma, good to see you again. Talk to us about the reaction and the mood, what it's been like where you are now a day after this remarkable arrest.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The reaction, the response all really comes down to one image right now, which is splattered all over the headlines here in the U.K. It is that picture of Mr. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as he is leaving a police station after 11 hours in custody. Just look at the headline, "The Downfall". Papers describing him as wild-eyed, haggard, haunted. Look at this one here for you.

The tabloids are just extraordinary on this one, "Taxi for Andy," look at that. Absolutely broken down in every one of these papers is this picture of him, "King: Law must take its course," hiding in the back of his Range Rover. That is how he is described in this paper.

Look, in this country, we don't have mug shots that are immediately released after an arrest like we do have in the United States. So, for many people in this country this right here is the mug shot of one of the most powerful and most senior people in society, the brother of King Charles.

And every little bit of that image is being dissected right now, Rahel, how he's slouching in the back of the car apparently to avoid the cameras that are trying to catch an image of him. His ashen face, the terrified look in his eyes, the way that his hands are clasped in that way.

There was a moment yesterday where it seemed that we might see Prince Andrew, former Prince Andrew, rather a man who was quite literally born into privilege, spend the night in a prison cell now, that did not happen, of course, but his legal troubles are far from over. He is, of course, right now the center of an investigation.

His arrest by plainclothes police officers, which occurred at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of his 66th birthday, their investigation continues. We understand today his former residence, the Royal Lodge, Windsor is still being searched by police. And yes, there have been no charges.

But what that means is that this continues to linger on. And it is, of course, Andrew who is being investigated, but it is very much the royal family today that is in the spotlight. You, of course mentioned that response from King Charles, who says he wants to see the law fully applied in whatever that means.

And that's very important in this case here because there's always been some friction, if you will, Rahel, between the social classes in this country. So, King Charles is coming out and saying, my brother will be treated like anyone else. But you have to remember, of course this is a global story.

There's reaction in the United States as well where there's a sense that Britain is doing something about the Epstein files, if you will. But again, we are still in a holding pattern when it comes to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

He was released after 11 hours in custody, but he has to wait for that final police decision. Are they going to charge him? We simply don't know yet.

SOLOMON: And, Salma, it's interesting because the statement from King Charles came out pretty swiftly. But one word that was missing from that statement was the actual word brother, of course. What else do we know about where the other royals stand on this arrest?

ABDELAZIZ: It doesn't include that word and it, of course, was this very -- it was -- it was sent out very quickly. The statement came out very shortly after the arrest, which is quite astounding. Buckingham Palace is very known to be tight lipped. And so, those statements are rare.

This statement came directly from the king, not from the palace. So, it felt that there was a personal level of interaction there. Look, the monarchy that sits behind me here operates and stays at the head of British society, fundamentally on a contract of public trust. And what we're talking about here with these accusations, with these allegations that of course, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has denied is a breach of public trust.

But the police are investigating him for is abuse of power. While he was a trade envoy for this country. So, what King Charles is trying to do is to restore that trust and restore that affection in the monarchy and to say, yes, the laws will apply to my brother, even if he is a senior member of the royal family -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Salma Abdelaziz live for us there from Buckingham palace -- Salma, thank you.

And CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked if the arrest of former Prince Andrew puts added pressure on the U.S. Justice Department to look more closely at what's in the Epstein files.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This will certainly up the pressure on prosecutors here in the Justice Department, because they will and should be asked at every turn by the press and by Congress. And I want to make this point here today. So, we don't have a statute, a law here in the United States that's analogous to the one that was used to arrest Andrew. That has to do with misuse of public power essentially.

However, if the Justice Department can prove that any person conspired work with Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell in this sex trafficking network, those people can still be federally charged criminally here in the United States, even if those crimes happen 10, 15, 20 years ago, because ordinarily, in our federal system, there's a five year statute of limitations.

However, when it comes to child sex trafficking crimes, there is no such statute. In fact, Ghislaine Maxwell tried to argue that the crimes were too old and she was rejected. So, if there's a will at DOJ, if they want to try to make cases and if they can get the proof, yes they can bring charges. But again, there's no sign that they're meaningfully moving towards that right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: President Trump is facing perhaps one of the most important decisions of his second term, how to respond to Iran over its nuclear program. The president is extending his timeline for making a decision on Iran, saying that it will be another 10 to 15 days and a possible attack could range from limited strikes to larger operations, potentially over weeks, to targeting Iran's leaders and Iran's regime change.

Now this comes as President Trump has ordered the largest military buildup in the Middle East in 22 years. Sources tell CNN that the U.S. could be ready to strike Iran as early as this weekend, though officials do not expect strikes to happen that soon.

Trump gave another warning to Iran. Take a listen

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal.

[05:10:02]

Or if that doesn't happen, I -- maybe can understand, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. But bad things will happen if it doesn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Let's go live now to Abu Dhabi and CNN's Paula Hancocks.

Paula, we've been watching these two things sort of happen simultaneously. On the one hand you have diplomatic talks and channels which apparently continue. But on the other hand, you have this military buildup. What's the latest here?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, we did have that -- that timeline from President Trump, although in the past he has mentioned timelines like that when it comes to Iran. And then disregarding them. So, 10 to 15 days is the latest timeline that he has given. We know, for example, that the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is supposed to be going to Israel at the end of this month to update Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on the state of the negotiations.

But the fact is we are still seeing this military buildup, which sources tell us should be in place by this weekend. Now, we are also on the other side, seeing Iran preparing for what they believe may well be coming. We have seen from satellite imagery that they are trying to fortify with concrete, with dirt in some cases, the some of their nuclear facilities trying to hide some of those facilities.

And also, we understand that over recent months that they have been rebuilding their missile capability. So, we are seeing military preparations on both sides of this. At this point. We also heard from the U.K. saying, according to multiple U.K. media outlets that that the U.K. would not allow any of their bases to be used in a potential U.S. military strike against Iran saying that it could break international law.

Now, we've heard similar things from some of those in this region, some of the Gulf nations saying that they don't want air bases or bases in these Gulf nations to be used as well because they are concerned that they will be part of the retaliation by Iran. Tehran has said that they will target U.S. assets U.S. personnel in this region. And certainly, when you look at -- for example, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, they all have U.S. presence within here as well.

So at this point, it is a state of limbo waiting to see if the U.S. president is going to make that decision. Sources say it doesn't appear to have been made at this point -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Okay. Paula Hancocks for us there in Abu Dhabi, Paula, thank you. The first meeting of President Trump's Board of Peace saw grand pledges for Gaza's future, but uncertainty remains about next steps Trump said that nine nations pledged more than $7 billion for relief aid. He vowed that the U.S. would give $10 billion to the group, but did not say whether he'd ask Congress for those funds.

Dozens of countries attended the meeting, either as members or observers, but notably, some key U.S. allies have declined invitations to the board. President Trump despite this, touting the groups prospects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: In terms of power and in terms of prestige. There's never been anything close because these are the greatest world leaders almost everybody is accepted, and the ones that haven't will be. Some are playing a little cute, doesn't work. You can't play cute with me, but they're playing a little bit. But they're all -- they're all joining everybody with most of them very immediately a few that we really don't want because they're trouble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Eric Dane, the actor who steamed up prime time TV on "Gray's Anatomy" at the height of the show's popularity, has died. A statement from his publicist says that Dane died on Thursday following a courageous battle with ALS, adding that he was surrounded by his wife, his two daughters and friends. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Eric Dane was 53.

Still ahead for U.S. European defense ministers are discussing Ukraine at this hour as they try to get the measure of the latest round of peace talks. We'll have a live report coming up.

And the search for Nancy Guthrie reaches Mexico, although officials say it's unlikely she crossed the border. Weve got the latest on her disappearance.

Plus, as the Trump administration continues to face criticism over its immigration enforcement, some communities are living in fear. How it's impacting the economy in Minnesota, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:19:17]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

Europe's top defense ministers are meeting in Poland right now as they take stock of the latest round of Ukraine peace talks. NATO is also taking part in today's meeting, which is expected to focus on security cooperation and Ukraine. That's happening after the third round of trilateral peace talks in Geneva ended without a breakthrough.

Let's get now for more -- let's get more now from Melissa Bell, who joins us live from Paris. Melissa, good morning. There is no date set for more peace talks. But what do we know about this defense minister's meeting which is happening as we speak?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just on that question of the resumption of these trilateral peace talks, we had heard from the Russian state media that they could resume as early as next week, although that has yet to be confirmed by Moscow, Kyiv or Washington.

[05:20:01]

I think what is interesting as well, in terms of what emerged from the talks so far, is that we've heard from Rustem Umerov, the lead Ukrainian negotiator, about the fact that progress had been made, that he couldn't go into further details. But I think the fact that there is something sufficiently substantial to have these talks continue is interesting given the deadlock that had been at the center of them over the course of the previous three rounds.

As to the today's meeting, this is the E5 part of NATO. So, the defense ministers of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Poland, in their meeting in Krakow today, even as these peace efforts continue, because of course, the role that NATO is going to play in a post peace, Ukraine is going to shift considerably. We know that the organization will remain at the heart of a post peace, Ukrainian security architecture with boots on the ground in the shape of British and French soldiers.

And we know that at the heart of those efforts to support Ukraine will be these Europeans within NATO, with of course, the American security guarantees. But these will be those most closely implicated. It is, of course, Europe as well. That is looking at this fast track accession for Ukraine post any peace deal.

And then there's a question also for these ministers of European rearmament. They're facing this difficulty, Rahel, in having to replenish their arsenals after all these many years of helping Ukraine. And we will be marking next Tuesday, the four-year anniversary of the Russian invasion as they seek to replenish them. It is under pressure from an American administration urging greater military independence security, independence on the part of Europe. Even as we understand from consultation processes within the commission, the American arms industry is sort of bullying Europe into continuing to buy its weapons from them, suggesting there could be -- there could be some measures taken should Europeans try and go it alone.

So that is the context in which they meet today in Krakow, even as we expect these peace talks to resume, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Okay. Melissa Bell for us there in Paris. Melissa, thank you.

Crews are waiting for a break in the snowstorm so that they can safely recover the bodies of skiers killed in an avalanche. Straight ahead, an update on the recovery effort in northern California.

And this avalanche well show you here was caught on video by people on a train in Switzerland. Just ahead why this winter has been especially deadly across the European Alps?

We'll be right back.

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[05:26:54]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

Pressure is mounting for investigators amid the ongoing search for Nancy Guthrie. Mexican officials say that there is no indication that the 84-year-old is in their country. But authorities on both sides of the border were told to be on the lookout for clues as part of standard investigative procedures. Guthrie was last seen on January 31st, before she was apparently kidnapped from her home in Arizona.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been 19 days since Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her home here in this neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona. And it doesn't appear any close, another day goes by without any significant developments as to where she might be, who might be responsible.

And it's been several days since we have heard from FBI investigators, in this case, the Pima County sheriff's department only put out a brief statement today saying that this is still an active investigation, that they will continue to follow all leads as long as they keep coming in. We know they're getting or they have received thousands of calls, but it has been more than a week since that dramatic, haunting footage of the suspect from Nancy Guthrie's front door camera was released to the public. And we know that investigators have been following a myriad of leads to various places and corners of Tucson.

But so far, nothing seems to have panned out on the investigative front in any way. Its also been interesting because the Pima County sheriff, who has done extensive interviews, says that he will not hold a media availability or hold any press conferences on Friday or into the weekend barring any major developments and even Savannah Guthrie has not released any more videos since last Sunday afternoon.

So just a very quiet time in this investigation obviously, that leaves a lot of people frustrated and anguished by what the Guthrie family is going through. A source familiar with the investigation did tell CNN on Thursday that there is a team of federal prosecutors ready to prosecute and charge anyone who is found to be extorting the Guthrie family. In this case, this comes as there's still a lot of questions surrounding these ransom notes that have been sent to various media outlets and determining whether or not they are legitimate or authentic in any way. That still hasn't been determined as far as we know.

But that is where things stand here. This very critical juncture in the investigation and the anguish that the Guthrie family is continuing to go through. But now, 19 days into this investigation and no clear sign that there were any closer to bringing Nancy Guthrie home or finding out who is behind all of this.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Other news this morning, heavy snow and strong winds are expected to subside in the coming hours in northern California, which could be a possible reprieve for search crews. They've been trying to continue their recovery mission for the bodies of eight skiers who died in an avalanche near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday. One skier is still missing and presumed dead. The avalanche is the deadliest in Californias recorded history, and its forced officials to close all lands and trails in the Castle Peak area of the Tahoe National Forest until next month.