WASHINGTON — 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.
President Trump has told The Post that he will instruct the DOJ to seek the death penalty for Nancy Guthrie’s kidnappers if she’s found dead. MediaPunch / BACKGRIDAsked 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.
Nancy was allegedly abducted from her home on Feb. 1. Instagram/savannahguthrie
Nancy and Savannah Guthrie in an undated photo. savannahguthrie/InstagramOver 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.
Here’s the latest on Savannah Guthrie’s missing mom Nancy Guthrie
- California man pleads guilty after sending fake ransom note to Nancy Guthrie’s heartbroken family
- Nancy Guthrie case could be solved with help from armchair sleuths: detective
- FBI hasn’t dismissed all Nancy Guthrie ransom notes — but reveals many led to dead end
- FBI determines Nancy Guthrie ransom notes were fake: report
Arizona has the death penalty, but many of the 109 inmates on the state’s death row have been there for decades.
Arizona has carried out just two executions since 2022, in part because of a nearly two-year pause by the Democrat-led state government that was lifted in late 2024.
Nancy Guthrie was reported missing over three weeks ago. Instagram/savannahguthrieThe federal government separately can seek capital punishment — and generally does so in the most notorious cases, such as those of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, and racist mass murderer Dylann Roof.
Former President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row — excluding Tsarnaev, Bowers, and Roof — but Trump officials plan to move the remainder to a federal supermax prison to serve out their penalties in harsh conditions.
