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The Situation Room

Search Continues For Nancy Guthrie; Pam Bondi Testifies Before Congress. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 11, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: We continue to monitor this hearing where the attorney general, Pam Bondi, is testifying to the House Judiciary Committee.

But we have some breaking news we want to turn to on the search for Nancy Guthrie. Celebrity Web site TMZ is reporting that it has received a new note.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, just hold on for a second, TMZ reporting it has found a new note just a couple hours ago, and it's from someone claiming to have information on the alleged kidnapper.

This is what we just heard from TMZ founder Harvey Levin just minutes ago. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARVEY LEVIN, FOUNDER, TMZ: We got kind of a bizarre letter, an e- mail from somebody who says they know who the kidnapper is and that they have tried reaching Savannah's sister, Annie, and Savannah's brother to no avail.

And they said they want one Bitcoin sent to a Bitcoin address that we have confirmed is active. It's a real Bitcoin address. And, as they put it, time is more than relevant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, this comes as investigators get their biggest break, at least so far in this case. This is the new video of a masked gunman on her doorstep before she vanished.

Here, you can see the person approach Guthrie's house and try to block the doorbell camera with a gloved hand. The person turns around, scans the porch and steps off into the front yard.

BROWN: All right, let's go live now to CNN's Ed Lavandera right there in Tucson, Arizona. What more are you learning this morning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the FBI is just commenting on this latest news from TMZ, essentially saying that they are not going to comment on the specifics of this development.

And it is simply that at this point. We have heard a number of communications that have been sent to various news media outlets throughout the course of this investigation. We are now entering day 11 of the disappearance and the abduction of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie.

The bottom line here is, there is still no suspect, no person of interest, this as we saw a dramatic day unfolding yesterday with the release of the video images and the still images from the door camera next to the Nancy Guthrie's front door.

And we do know that those video images and still images have generated a large number of leads and tips for investigators, all with -- and it led to a dramatic scene, as a person was detained about 50 miles south of Tucson in a little town called Rio Rico, where a 36-year-old man was detained for questioning and then released after several hours.

But all of this -- and it's going back to the TMZ reporting here, is, it's important to point out that, throughout all of this, all of the talk of the ransom notes and the communication back and forth that the Guthrie family has issued, released these videos and that sort of thing, that, while the family and investigators have taken them and these tips, these notes seriously, there is no confirmation, no verification that they are authentic in any way.

And investigators have been saying all along that they're treating these things as any other type of evidence, some sort of clue that they need to go chase down, but, so far, nothing's materialized -- Wolf and Pamela.

BLITZER: All right, Ed Lavandera on the scene for us, we will stay in very close touch with you. I know there are new developments unfolding even as we speak.

And, to our viewers, this is once again very, very important. If you have any information at all that potentially could help investigators, please call the numbers on your screen. The FBI tip line is 1-800- CALL-FBI. And the Pima County Sheriff's Department is at 520-351-4900.

BROWN: All right, after the break, we're going to go back to Capitol Hill, where Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

We will be right back.

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REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): ... since FBI senior leadership authorized two statements to the press that said I was never suspected of wrongdoing and only helped the investigation.

But that didn't stop the death threats or my GOP colleagues from referring me to an ethics investigation, where Kevin McCarthy's chairman on the Ethics Committee would find the same thing as the FBI.

Our current FBI director would then write a book called "Government Gangsters," and identify a long list of enemies. About a quarter of them have been either investigated or indicted. He listed me at the very top, along with Adam Schiff, and, during that same testimony, refused to recuse himself when asked if he would recuse if any case came across his desk involving me or people on that list.

Since that testimony, his department has put me under investigation with Senator Schiff for the nonsense mortgage fraud cases that we have seen. I get it. This is what the president does. I have priced it in. We have a bingo card at home that my kids have made of what will come next.

I expected that the president would come after his enemies. But what I want to talk to you next is serious, and I did not expect this would happen, and I'd like your help on it. The president has inspired death threats against me and many sitting up here with me.

[11:40:09]

In June 2025, an individual left 11 voice-mails at my district office. On the voice-mails, they said: "Get the message to him. I'm going to hunt him down, that motherfucker, and toss his ass over the Golden Gate Bridge by my fucking self."

Donald Trump's Department of Justice in the Northern District of California declined to prosecute.

On May 14, 2025, on Twitter, responding to something I posted, an individual said: "No, it wasn't, Eric, and now I'm going to kill you." The Department of Justice from the Southern District of Texas declined to prosecute.

May through December of 2025, we received messages at my office that said: "I hope somebody shoots you and your children and your wife in the head. Pew-pew, motherfucker. Pew-pew. I would stay indoors as much as possible."

And my children, unfortunately, have to do that. The Department of Justice has not charged this individual and cited that he's a prolific caller and has health conditions, although what we have found in our own investigation and his voice-mails is that he has said he will employ others to do this.

The president can come after me. It's fine. I'm in the arena. So are these folks. But we never expected that the Department of Justice would not seek to prosecute and investigate those who are making threats against us, and that would include those on that side of the aisle.

And I'm just asking for your help to protect life, because life is at risk with the environment we're in right now.

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Congressman, I completely agree with you. I know about several of those personally involving you. I believe one has been charged publicly, and there's something I would be happy to talk to you about off-camera, but I can assure you that they are very serious.

They are being looked into, and I can give you more details on those. None of you should be threatened ever. None of your children should be threatened. None of your families should be threatened. And I will work with -- you can come into my office any day. I will work with all of you on both sides of the aisle if you are ever threatened.

And I will gladly talk to you after this hearing about your cases. But I can tell you some of them are very active.

SWALWELL: Appreciate that. And I yield back.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): The gentleman yields back, and we're sorry for what the gentleman and his family had to go through. We appreciate what the attorney general said.

And I think some of the things that the gentleman from California related, we can all relate to. And it's unfortunate. It's wrong, as the attorney general said. And we appreciate the help we get from the Justice Department.

With that, we will now recognize the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Van Drew.

REP. JEFF VAN DREW (R-NJ): Thank you, Chairman.

I don't know where to begin. Thank you for being here, General. I'm right in front of you. I just -- I have to mention this first. I used this word before, and my friends on the other side of the aisle got mad at me, but hypocrisy.

Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. But for years on the other side of the aisle, we heard nothing, crickets, not a word. Nothing was said when they were in control. Nothing was mentioned basically the last summer, and the ranking member points out that he did do something last year. Yes, he did a letter complaining about the plea deal for Maxwell.

But it wasn't a big deal. Then we get a new administration, and all of a sudden it's a big deal, and they feign concern, they're upset, they're investigating. They had all these years and all this time. And, in fact, Stacey Plaskett -- and we all know that name -- when they had a congressional hearing, Democratic member, were taking texts from Epstein on questions to ask to go after Trump.

So, Epstein was using her, Democratic colleague, as a tool to go after President Trump. Just everybody keep that in mind. And then we talk about ICE and how horrible it is. And there are concerns. Everybody wants everything to go right. Nobody ever wants to see somebody die, and they complain about it. But at the same time, hypocrisy, they encourage constituents to go

after the ICE agents, to challenge them, to hurt them, to attack them. And that doesn't make sense. It's hypocrisy. And then we hear about the concern of going after Democrats, that the legal system, that judiciary and Department of Justice is going after Democrats.

But they literally rework the legal system under Alvin Bragg and Alvin Bragg to go after Republicans and those sympathetic to Republicans. So, I mean, be careful when you accuse others that you're not guilty yourself. Be careful of what you say, because you got a history, and it's easy to go over it.

I just want to talk about where we were and where we are now. We had over 10 million illegal crossings in the past between 2020 and '24, over 10 million. It's probably a much bigger number. I'm being conservative. We were told the people weren't dangerous, but they were, General. They were dangerous, many of them, more than 300 individuals on the terror watch list during that time.

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Violent criminals came across, and as we saw consequences where mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, children were raped, murdered, hurt, abused, beaten, trafficked, all from the drugs, my God, the drugs they brought into our babies in this country, 73,000 illegals with criminal histories, 20,000 with convictions of assault, robbery and sex offenses, 13,000 convicted murderers in our beautiful country, 15,000 convicted sexual assault offenders.

It was madness. It was insanity. It's bizarre. It's perverse. What in God's name were you doing? So we finally are cleaning this up now. We're finally trying to make it right and safe for our people.

So my questions are this. General, do you believe in removing criminal illegal aliens from our communities will save American lives?

BONDI: Yes.

And given the cases that you just discussed, that's proof of it every single day. President Trump is committed to that. This entire Cabinet is committed to that and making and keeping Americans safe.

VAN DREW: Thank you. Will you agree that...

BLITZER: All right, we're going to stay on top of this important House Judiciary Committee hearing with the attorney general Pam Bondi.

Much more of our special coverage coming up right after this.

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[11:51:00]

BROWN: All right, we want to bring in CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez and CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero as this hearing is underway with the Judiciary Committee in the House and the attorney general Pam Bondi.

Carrie, first to you. What stands out to you so far from what we've heard?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think it probably won't surprise you that I view this hearing so far is primarily a missed opportunity for the committee to conduct really serious oversight of the changes that have been taking place at the department in the last year.

Including, significantly, just the hollowing out of certain departments, of divisions within the department, probably most significantly the Civil Rights Division, which has come up a little bit in the hearing in the context of the questions about the shooting of American citizens by ICE in Minneapolis, which the department has not done a serious job so far that we can see of investigating.

So I think that is -- the lack of focus on the civil rights enforcement from the perspective of holding law enforcement accountable for these shootings of U.S. citizens I think has been the biggest missed opportunity in the hearing so far.

I think that, as expected, much of the hearing has focused on the Epstein files. There was what I think was the most serious moment of the hearing, which was when Congressman Swalwell discussed the threats that have been brought against him and his family in voice-mails to his office, on social media, and his plea to the attorney general to see that the Justice Department is conducting investigations.

And I thought that was a rare moment of bipartisanship, where we saw the chairman and the attorney general and Congressman Swalwell all acknowledge the really serious threat environment that lawmakers are under.

BLITZER: And what did you think of the fact that there were several Epstein survivors, women, who were sitting there in that hearing room? And, at some points, they stood up. Some of the Democrats were pointing to them and asking the attorney general, why don't you apologize?

CORDERO: Yes, it clearly -- that was the approach that the Democratic lawmakers decided to take in this hearing, which was to focus almost primarily, with just a couple exceptions, on the Epstein files, on the release, on the compliance by the Justice Department with the Transparency Act.

It was a moment of theater in some ways, with a member of Congress asking the attorney general to turn and face the victims, and the attorney general not wanting to have that visual and not wanting to participate that.

So I think that was sort of the most fireworks event of the hearing. But in all, that clearly was a focus of the Democratic lawmakers. From my perspective, you know me. I'm sort of a policy nerd. I would like to see more focus on the serious oversight issues not related to Epstein that the department needs to be working on. BLITZER: I can confirm, a policy nerd indeed.

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BLITZER: All right, Evan, what jumped out at you?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the things that, as Carrie was pointing out, the missed opportunities.

They could have asked her and they still have a chance to ask her whether the Justice Department plans to allow state authorities to join these investigations into especially the Alex Pretti killing and the Renee Good killing by ICE agents.

Both of those are in her purview, and she could say. They also never really got an answer from -- to whether or not they're -- what the department is trying to do to indict members of Congress for the video which told members of the military to follow the law. So there's still a lot of chances here to kind of cover relevant ground.

It's not clear that she actually wants that, though, because it's clear she came ready to -- with her one-line zingers to attack members of Congress.

BROWN: And, sometimes, it appeared she was talking to an audience of one.

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PEREZ: Right. It's really an audience of one. This is a performance for President Trump, given the fact that she is a little bit on the ropes. the president is very frustrated with her, that the department has not moved more quickly to go after his enemies.

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BLITZER: I thought it was interesting that, at one point, she started talking about how good the Dow Jones industrial average is right now.

PEREZ: And the greatest president in history.

BLITZER: And she went on and on and on, on that.

PEREZ: Right.

BLITZER: All right, thank you very much.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

BROWN: "INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts after a short break.

Have a great rest of your day. And we will see you tomorrow morning.