Nancy Guthrie: The Truth of The Ransom Notes

**Tony Smith** (0:00)
And we're live from the living room, as Doug eyes up the match day spread. He's reaching for the Buffalo Wing.

**Branson Quirk** (0:06)
Perfect!

**Harvey Levin** (0:07)
Hang on, what's this?

**Tony Smith** (0:08)
Oh, he's gone for a can of Pepsi too!

**Branson Quirk** (0:11)
Incredible!

**Tony Smith** (0:13)
What a finish! Sensational combination!

**SPEAKER_4** (0:16)
Look at the delight on his face.

**Harvey Levin** (0:18)
There's no doubt about it.

**Tony Smith** (0:19)
It just tastes better. Match days deserve Pepsi.

**Harvey Levin** (0:23)
Food deserves Pepsi.

**Tony Smith** (0:24)
Grab a pack of Pepsi Zero Sugar for today's match. It's Poetry in Motion!

**Branson Quirk** (0:38)
Hey, welcome to The TMZ Podcast. I'm Branson Quirk.

**Tony Smith** (0:41)
And I'm Tony Smith. Wow.
Very busy day here at the office.

**Branson Quirk** (0:45)
Very busy day, but it's Taylor Swift wedding week as we all know, but before we get into Taylor Swift and the wedding, are you excited for the wedding, for Taylor's wedding?

**Tony Smith** (0:54)
I mean, I'm happy for her that she's getting married and found her person, but I'm not gonna lie, I think I've seen it a lot out there too in comments sections. I think people are overhearing about the wedding, but we're gonna talk about it anyway.

**Branson Quirk** (1:06)
We're gonna give you all the details. We're gonna give you the details, because it's some interesting stuff. There's things going on outside the arena, Madison Square Garden, inside, outside. Taylor and Travis are on the scene there. We've seen Travis running around the stadium. We've seen Taylor hanging out with her friend.

**Tony Smith** (1:21)
We just got an exclusive photo from the bachelor party.

**Branson Quirk** (1:24)
From Travis Kelce's bachelor party. We're gonna show you it all, but before we get to Travis and Taylor's wedding, we do want to come to you and give you a little bit more about these ransom notes and this story that came out this morning by Reuters, who claimed that the ransom notes were all fake and that they were not real. So Harvey Levin, who is the one that received these alleged ransom notes, he made it very clear through a source talking to the FBI all about this. We have the video for you now, so we're just gonna play it for you.

**Harvey Levin** (2:01)
Okay, Reuters came out with a story today, saying that they have FBI sources who say that the FBI has determined that the two ransom notes, alleged ransom notes, one of which we received along with two Tucson television stations and a second which one of those TV stations received were not legitimate and also that the demand letters that we had been receiving from somebody demanding one bitcoin in return for saying who the kidnappers are, identifying them, that too is not legitimate. So we decided that we would pursue this and see if in fact this is real that they've discounted it. It's not what we had heard but it was possible so we made calls. So I am going to tell you that I spoke with two people in the FBI, one of whom is involved in the investigation, one of whom is an official. And the official in the FBI who asked, I don't use this person's name, said this, it is more likely than not that the two ransom notes are real, are real.
Further in that conversation this person said they are more legitimate than not. That's a quote. Now they haven't determined it is for sure real, but they definitely have not determined it is for sure fake. And as for the demand letters that we've been getting, where somebody is asking for one Bitcoin, they say it is less likely that those letters are real, but they have not discounted that either. So I think this goes to the legitimacy really of the ransom notes, because that's really what's important here. We have told you before that we had as many as five FBI agents on phone calls at the same time with our IT team trying to find out who sent these ransom notes or these alleged ransom notes. And they have not been able to do that.
We are told today that they are still pursuing those two notes, the two alleged ransom notes. They have not determined, I want to repeat, they are real, but they have definitely not determined that they are not. And they lean more toward legit than not legit.

**Branson Quirk** (4:57)
There's a lot of rumors going around. And like Harvey just told you, he got on the phone with not only just an official from the FBI, but also someone who's involved in the investigation. It's important to pay attention to what the authorities are saying and what's real, what's not. I know there's been a lot, right Tony?