President Trump told The Post Monday that those responsible for kidnapping Nancy Guthrie must release her unharmed or they will face the “most severe” federal penalties.
In a brief phone interview, Trump said he would want the Justice Department to seek the death penalty if the 84-year-old mother of NBC “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie is killed.
The president said the abductors would face “very, very severe — the most severe” federal consequences if Nancy Guthrie is found dead after being abducted from her home outside Tucson on Feb. 1.
Asked if that meant the DOJ would request the death penalty, Trump answered: “The most, yeah — that’s true.”
The president called Savannah Guthrie on Feb. 4 to offer federal assistance in the case, with the FBI ultimately recovering bone-chilling images and video last week of a masked man standing at the suburban home’s front door.
Trump hasn’t said much publicly about the case as investigators frantically search for the elderly mother of three, who authorities believe may still be alive.
Over the weekend, authorities launched flights above the desert region carrying a high-tech Bluetooth device in hopes of locating a signal from Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker.
Federal charges are common in high-profile cases, particularly if there’s an interstate component or if a federal statute is violated. --->READ MORRE HERE
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| Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images |
President Donald Trump on Friday commented on why the FBI has not taken over as the lead agency investigating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie nearly two weeks since she vanished from her Tucson, Arizona, home.
Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC host Savannah Guthrie, went missing from her home Feb. 1, and no suspects or persons of interest have been publicly named by authorities 13 days later.
While speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump explained why the Pima County Sheriff's Department remains the lead on the investigation.
"They didn't want to let go of it, which is fine. It's up to them. It's really up to the communities," Trump told reporters outside the White House Friday afternoon. "But ultimately, when the FBI got involved, I think, you know, progress has been made."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said earlier that FBI Director Kash Patel assured her that the bureau was on the ground in Arizona and is offering local authorities the "full resources" of the federal government.
The president's comments came after a U.S. law enforcement source told Fox News Digital on Thursday that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is blocking the FBI from key evidence.
During an interview Friday with Fox News' Matt Finn, Nanos defended his department's partnership with the FBI, saying his office did not find a glove at Guthrie's property and a private Florida lab, which the sheriff's department has been contracted with for decades, began receiving evidence at the start of the investigation and that the FBI agreed that evidence should continue to be sent there instead of the FBI's national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. --->READ MORE HERE
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