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Trump excludes two Democrats from US governors’ meeting invite

February 12, 2026 12:32 AM UTC / Reuters

WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump plans to host Republican and Democratic governors for a breakfast meeting next week, the National Governors Association chairman said on Wednesday, though Trump later insisted he was still excluding two Democratic governors.

Republican Trump is inviting all the governors to the meeting, according to an email by National Governors Association Chairman Kevin Stitt on Wednesday, after the association canceled a White House meeting over the exclusion of Democrats.

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The meeting is scheduled for February 20. Governors from across the U.S. gather every year in Washington for the NGA meeting. It has become a tradition for the president to host the governors at the White House for a session with cabinet secretaries, among other officials, and a black-tie dinner for the governors and their spouses.

“He was very clear in his communications with me that this is a National Governors Association’s event, and he looks forward to hosting you and hearing from governors across the country,” wrote Stitt, who is also the Republican governor of Oklahoma.

“President Trump said this was always his intention, and we have addressed the misunderstanding in scheduling.”

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Trump said later on Wednesday that he invited all governors except Wes Moore and Jared Polis, the Democratic governors of Maryland and Colorado, respectively.

He accused Moore in a social media post of doing “a terrible job” of rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in 2024 after a container ship crashed into one of its support pillars.

Trump cited Polis’ decision to not release Tina Peters from prison as a reason he was denied an invitation to the meeting. Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, was sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2024 after being convicted of tampering with voting machines after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Trump said he felt the two governors were “not worthy” of attending the event. The White House did not respond to a request seeking clarification of the comment.

Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Matthew Lewis

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US House votes against Canada tariffs in rare rebuke to Trump

February 11, 2026 11:27 PM UTC / Reuters

By Patricia Zengerle

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A view of the U.S. Capitol building a day before a partial government shutdown is scheduled to take place, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary
• Companies

• Vote sends resolution to Senate, but Trump veto expected
• Handful of Republicans joined most Democrats to back resolution
• Resolution’s sponsor disputes Trump’s claim of fentanyl emergency
• Republican leaders had prevented tariff votes for months

WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly backed a measure disapproving of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare rebuke of the president and leaders of his party in the Republican-majority House.

Lawmakers voted 219 to 211 in favor of a resolution to terminate Trump’s use of a national emergency to put punitive trade measures on Canadian goods, as six Republicans joined all but one Democrat in favor.

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It was an important symbolic vote in the chamber, where Trump’s Republicans hold a slim 218-214 majority. The resolution stands a good chance of passage in the Senate, which has voted twice to block Trump from imposing tariffs on Canada despite his Republicans holding more seats.

However, it is unlikely to become law, as it would take two-thirds majorities in both chambers to overcome an expected Trump veto. Most Republicans have been unwilling to oppose Trump’s policies.

The House approved the resolution a day after three Republicans joined Democrats to narrowly defeat an effort by Republican leaders to block legislative challenges to Trump’s tariffs.

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Members of Congress have been expressing frustration over rising costs for U.S. consumers as well as the impact of the tariffs on businesses involved in international trade.

‘CANADA ISN’T A THREAT’

Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, who introduced the resolution, said it was about lowering the cost of living for American families, disputing claims that there was a drug-related national emergency as Trump had claimed to justify tariffs against Canada.

“Canada isn’t a threat. Canada is our friend. Canada is our ally,” Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a House speech before the vote.

Trump warned that any Republican in the House or Senate who voted against the tariffs would “seriously suffer the consequences come Election time.”

He also took a shot at Canada, saying it had taken advantage of the United States on trade. “They are among the worst in the World to deal with, especially as it relates to our Northern Border,” he wrote on social media.

Some members of Congress have also objected to Trump’s repeated use of executive orders to set tariffs, especially on close allies like Canada, noting that the U.S. Constitution gives that right to Congress, not the president.

Last month, the Yale Budget Lab said, opens new tab the annual median cost of the Trump administration’s tariffs stands around $1,400 for each U.S. household. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated the cost at $1,000 per household in 2025, rising to $1,300 this year, in a report last week.

Trump initiated a tariff war with Canada shortly after beginning his second term in January 2025. He ordered 25% tariffs on imports from Canada in February 2025, and in August signed an executive order increasing tariffs on Canadian goods to 35% for all products not covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

The move was linked to what his administration said was Canada’s failure to stop smuggling of the dangerous drug fentanyl. But both Canada’s government and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration say smuggling from Canada accounts for less than 1% of fentanyl on U.S. streets.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee and Edmund Klamann

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The House of Representatives passed a massive election integrity overhaul bill on Wednesday despite opposition from the vast majority of Democrats.

The House passed Rep. Chip Roy’s SAVE America Act, legislation that’s aimed at keeping non-citizens from voting in U.S. federal elections. All but one House Democrat — Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas — voted against the bill. It passed 218 to 213.

It is an updated version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, also led by Roy, R-Texas, which passed the House in April 2025 but was never taken up in the Senate.

Whereas the SAVE Act would create a new federal proof of citizenship mandate in the voter registration process and impose requirements for states to keep their rolls clear of ineligible voters, the updated bill would also require photo ID to vote in any federal elections.

MURKOWSKI BREAKS WITH GOP ON VOTER ID, SAYS PUSH ‘IS NOT HOW WE BUILD TRUST’

It would also require information-sharing between state election officials and federal authorities in verifying citizenship on current voter rolls and enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pursue immigration cases if non-citizens were found to be listed as eligible to vote.

Democrats have attacked the bill as tantamount to voter suppression, while Republicans argue that it’s necessary after the influx of millions of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. during the four years of the Biden administration.

“If we want to rebuild confidence again in American elections, we need to pass the SAVE Act,” Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. “What better way to eliminate that distrust than to make sure that whoever votes in an American citizen who is truly eligible to vote?”

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., accused Republicans of trying to make it harder for women to vote. She argued that the legislation would make it more difficult for married women to cast ballots if their surname is different from their maiden name on their birth certificate.

“Republicans aren’t worried about non-citizens voting. They’re afraid of actual American citizens voting. Why? Because they’re losing among women,” Clark said during debate on the House floor. “This is a minefield of red tape that you have put in front of women and American citizens and their right to vote.”

REPUBLICANS, TRUMP RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK ON VOTER ID BILL

But House GOP Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., emphasized that it was about keeping illegal immigrants from voting in U.S. elections.

“This really is about feeding the narrative that Democrats want illegally from all over the world to come here to support them,” Hern said of Democrats’ opposition.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, “The American people did not give Republicans a mandate to make excuses.They gave us one to deliver wins, and the SAVE America Act is exactly that. Every single Democrat who voted no today proved they would rather let illegal aliens tip the scales in our national elections than protect your vote.”

If implemented, the bill could see new requirements imposed on voters in this year’s November midterm elections.

But it would have to pass the Senate, where current rules dictate that at least several Democrats are needed to meet the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

解放军原总后勤部副部长王太岚逝世

2026年2月12日 10:34 / 联合早报

中国人民解放军原总后勤部副部长王太岚逝世，享年86岁，官方在约半个月后向社会公布他去世的消息。

新华社星期三（2月11日）消息，解放军副大军区职退休干部、原总后勤部副部长王太岚因病医治无效，于1月25日在北京逝世，享年86岁。

王太岚是山东省东阿县人，1958年入伍，1959年加入中国共产党。新华社介绍，王太岚历任参谋、股长、科长，师司令部作训科副科长、副参谋长，副师长、副师长兼团长、师长，省军区参谋长、副司令员，南京军区后勤部副部长、部长等职，为解放军部队革命化、现代化、正规化建设作出了贡献。

王太岚是中共第十四次、十五次全国代表大会代表，第十五届中央委员会候补委员，第十届全国人大常务委员会委员、农业与农村委员会委员。他1988年被授予少将军衔，1994年晋升为中将军衔。

李强：推动人工智能全链条突破、全场景落地

发布时间 / 来源：2026年2月12日 10:43 / 联合早报

中国国务院星期三（2月11日）以深化拓展“人工智能+”、全方位赋能千行百业为主题，进行第十八次专题学习。中国国务院总理李强（中）主持学习。 （新华社）

中国总理李强主持以“人工智能+”为主题的国务院专题学习时说，要深刻认识和把握人工智能发展态势，推动人工智能全链条突破、全场景落地，更大释放发展潜能。

综合新华社和中新社报道，中国国务院星期三（2月11日）以深化拓展“人工智能+”、全方位赋能千行百业为主题，进行第十八次专题学习。

上海人工智能实验室主任周伯文作讲解。中国副总理丁薛祥、张国清，国务委员吴政隆作交流发言。

李强在听取讲解和交流发言后说，中国近年深入实施“人工智能+”行动，坚持以科技创新引领产业创新、以产业升级促进科技迭代，推动人工智能赋能千行百业、走进千家万户，涌现出一大批新产业新模式。面向未来，“人工智能+”前景广阔，将不断带动消费和产业升级，在各个领域打开新的增量空间。

他指出，要持续夯实技术底座，推进算法创新，加大高质量数据供给，提升大模型性能，前瞻布局新技术新路径。要大力推进规模化商业化应用，促进人工智能终端和服务消费，建设人工智能应用中试基地，发展壮大智能体产业，拓展更多高价值应用场景。

李强说，要加快培育产业生态，优化智算资源布局，加大数、算、电、网等资源协同，推进软硬件适配，形成产业链上下游贯通发展的格局。要积极推动开放合作，扩大国际技术交流和应用开发，构建开源技术体系和开源社区。要坚持统筹发展和安全，加强人工智能治理，完善相关法律法规、政策制度、应用规范、伦理准则，为人工智能应用筑牢安全保障。

李强强调，实施好“人工智能+”行动，需要充分激发全社会的活力和创造力。要构建开放包容的发展环境，支持企业锐意创新、积极探索，让新生事物在市场竞争中孕育壮大。要强化公共服务和要素保障，破除体制机制障碍，帮助企业解决实际困难。要加强人才培养使用，尤其要造就一批优秀的复合型人才，为推进“人工智能+”提供有力支撑。

Four states sue Trump administration over cuts to public health funding

By Jan Wolfe
February 12, 2026 2:35 AM UTC Updated 32 mins ago

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Feb 11 (Reuters) – Four Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that seeks to block the Trump administration from terminating $600 million in public health funding.

In a complaint, opens new tab filed in federal court in Chicago, the states — California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota — said they were being unlawfully subjected to “devastating funding cuts to basic public health infrastructure based on political animus and disagreements about unrelated topics such as federal immigration enforcement.”

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A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that the grants are being terminated because they do not reflect the agency’s priorities. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The grant funding, administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is used to monitor health threats, respond to disease outbreaks, and plan for public health emergencies. The affected programs include those supporting HIV prevention and surveillance.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted to withhold funding from Democratic-led states, though the cuts have been blocked by lower court judges.

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A judge last month temporarily blocked the Trump administration from freezing access by five Democratic-led states to more than $10 billion of federal funds for childcare and family assistance based on what the administration said were concerns about fraud.

Trump last month warned so-called “sanctuary cities or states” that he would begin halting funding in February, saying their policies foment “fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come.”

The New York Post first reported last week that Trump’s budget office had instructed the Department of Transportation and the CDC to claw back more than $1.5 billion from a group of Democratic-led states.

“President Trump is resorting to a familiar playbook,

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced an executive order directing the Department of War to pursue new agreements with coal plants to ensure a “more reliable” electric grid. (Pool)

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing the Department of War (DOW) to work directly with coal-fired power plants on new long-term power purchasing agreements, arguing the move would ensure “more reliable power and stronger and more resilient grid power.”

“That’s why I’m also pleased to announce that, in just a moment, I will sign an executive order that directs the Department of War to work directly with coal plants on the new power purchasing agreements, ensuring that we have more reliable power and stronger and more resilient grid power,” Trump said.

“And we’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now, and it’s going to be less expensive and actually much more effective than what we have been using for many, many years.”

[The executive order], “Strengthening United States National Defense with America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Power Generation Fleet,” states, “The United States must ensure that our electric grid … remains resilient and reliable, and not reliant on intermittent energy sources,” calling the grid “the foundation of our national defense as well as our economic stability.”

[TRUMP ADMIN TO REPEAL OBAMA-ERA GREENHOUSE GAS FINDING IN LARGE-SCALE DEREGULATION]

[Image 45: President Trump signs military/coal executive order while lawmakers and coal workers look on]

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, left; House Speaker Mike Johnson; and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin watch as President Donald Trump signs an executive order directing the military to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants during a “Champion of Coal” event Wednesday at the White House in Washington, D.C.(Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

It adds, “It is the policy of the United States that coal is essential to our national and economic security.”

Under a section titled “Power Purchase Agreements with Federal Installations,” the order states that the Secretary of War, “in coordination with the Secretary of Energy, shall seek to procure power from the United States coal generation fleet by approving long-term Power Purchase Agreements … with coal-fired energy production facilities to serve DOW installations or other mission-critical facilities.”

Speaking at the White House and flanked by members of his Cabinet, coal workers and GOP lawmakers, Trump framed coal as vital to defense and industrial production.

[BIDEN’S GREEN ENERGY FIASCO, NOT TRUMP’S REFORMS, IS JACKING UP YOUR ELECTRIC BILL]

[Image 46: President Trump speaking during coal executive order event]

President Donald Trump speaks during a “Champion of Coal” event in the East Room of the White House Wednesday, in Washington, D.C.(Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Coal is also critical to our national security,” he said. “Vital to everything from steel production to shipbuilding and artificial intelligence.”

He also pointed to winter storms as evidence of coal’s reliability.

“More than 200 million Americans across 35 states were impacted by the storm, and the only reason most were able to take a hot shower was thanks to the power provided by the most reliable, dependable of, and really dependable form of energy that we have,” Trump said. “And that’s clean, beautiful coal.”

Trump contrasted his approach with the prior administration.

“On day one of this administration, I ended the war on coal,” Trump said. “We terminated the green new scam, and we withdrew from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord.”

He also criticized wind energy.

[TRUMP TO HOST ‘CLEAN BEAUTIFUL COAL’ EVENT, CALLS IT AMERICA’S MOST RELIABLE ENERGY]

[Image 48: President Trump speaks at coal executive order event while coal workers look on]

President Donald Trump speaks during a “Champion of Coal” event, where he ordered the Pentagon to purchase electricity from plants and announced millions of dollars to upgrade existing sites.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I’m not a big fan of those crazy windmills that are all made in China,” Trump said. “You know, they’re made in China but not used by China.”

Trump said the Tennessee Valley Authority was “taking action to save two major coal plants,” mentioning the Cumberland Fossil Plant and the Kingston Fossil Plant.

“These two plants were slated for termination,” Trump said, “but we’re going to save over 450 jobs by keeping them going and going strong.”

Trump said he was “directing the Department of Energy to issue funds” to coal plants in several states.

“In addition, I’m directing the Department of Energy to issue funds to coal plants in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky to keep them online and keep those plants open,” Trump said.

On permitting, Trump said, “In one year of Trump, we’ve already approved over 70 permits for very big, very powerful mines that are going to be with us for many, many years to come.”

Trump said coal production and generation had increased during his tenure.

“Since I took office, coal production is up by nearly 4 million tons a month after falling for decades,” he said. “Coal power generation is up by nearly 15% in my first year.”

Later in the event, Peabody Energy CEO Jim Grech presented Trump with an award.

“Sir. Just to show our appreciation,” Grech said. “The trophy says the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.”

Trump closed by returning to what he described as American energy dominance.

[CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP]

“America is now the No. 1 energy producer in the world,” he said. “We are by far No. 1.”

The Department of War did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.

兀兰关卡加强交通执法 打击超速插队行为

发布/2026年2月12日 10:52

[移民与关卡局]和[交通警察]将从2月13日至17日，在[兀兰关卡]展开加强版交通执法行动，以遏制和侦测超速、插队等违规行为。

移民局指出，不遵守车道纪律和交通规则可能导致严重交通阻塞，并危及其他公路使用者的安全。在2026年1月，兀兰关卡就侦测到八起交通违规事件，违例者已受到执法行动对付。

移民局和交警强调，将毫不犹豫地对在关卡触犯条例或不遵守官员指示的旅客采取严厉行动。外国注册车辆的驾驶员可能被禁止入境，而新加坡注册车辆的驾驶员则可能被转交交警进一步调查和处罚。被发现插队的违规驾驶员将被要求重新排队。

当局呼吁所有旅客保持耐心和理解，配合执勤人员，遵守交通规则并保持车道纪律，共同打造更安全、更愉快的陆路关卡通关体验。

Published Epstein files included video showing the face of a person who works undercover

Published Time: 2026-02-12T01:23:55.078Z / Source: CNN Politics

By Holmes Lybrand

1 hr 45 min ago

PUBLISHED Feb 11, 2026, 8:23 PM ET

Federal agencies

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Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein stand as US Attorney General Pam Bondi is questioned by U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Justice Department, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

Kent Nishimura/Reuters

The Justice Department’s ongoing struggle with redactions in the released records related to Jeffrey Epstein continued Wednesday when it was discovered that the face of an undercover person was left uncovered in a video.

The department requested CNN make the face of an undercover person unidentifiable in a published video of a sting operation to obtain a black book of Epstein’s contacts.

The 2009 video shows Epstein’s former Palm Beach house manager Alfredo Rodriguez trying to sell a little black book of addresses and phone numbers, claiming it contained powerful people and victims of Epstein, to the undercover person.

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Video shows Epstein’s butler selling ‘little black book’

Newly released video from the Justice Department shows Jeffrey Epstein’s former house manager, often called his butler, attempting to sell Epstein’s address book, or “little black book,” to an undercover FBI employee in a 2009 sting operation. CNN’s Kara Scannell reports.

2:56 • Source: CNN

Video shows Epstein’s butler selling ‘little black …

2:56

“You will see a lot of important people here,” Rodriguez says in the video, adding that the book includes phone numbers for underage girls.

After this video was published by CNN, the Justice Department said it failed to obscure the face of an undercover person in the video, when it included in the most recent dump of Epstein documents. CNN has updated its video with the face of the undercover person obscured.

The original link where the video was found no longer includes the document.

CNN had reached out to the FBI and Justice Department before initially publishing the video. The FBI told CNN to contact the Justice Department, which did not return requests for comment Wednesday.

The video was taken two years after the FBI demanded Rodriguez turn over any Epstein documents, according to court documents. Rodriguez instead tried to sell the book for $50,000, those documents say.

Rodriguez also claimed in the video that Ghislaine Maxwell — Epstein’s longtime co-conspirator who has since been convicted for her role in the crimes and is currently in prison — kept a database of girls, which included naked images.

A document that was included in the US Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, photographed on Tuesday, shows a 2002 passport application from Ghislaine Maxwell along with a visa and a letter to Epstein.

Jon Elswick/AP

“The teenagers, they had braces,” Rodriguez says. He did not, however, provide evidence of the alleged database’s existence.

The video shows the undercover person hand Rodriguez a bag of cash before ending.

The former house manager was later arrested for failing to turn over the book as evidence but claimed it was his property and “insurance policy,” worrying that Epstein would make him “disappear,” according to court records.

He eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Rodriguez died in 2014.

It’s not the first instance that the Justice Department failed to redact certain information in the millions of files released on Epstein.

The department continues to face severe backlash over publishing documents that included the names of victims and over-redacting information related to those who may have aided Epstein in his crimes.

Victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein react as US Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on

Cybersecurity experts explain how surveillance footage of Nancy Guthrie’s home was recovered

Updated on: February 11, 2026 / 6:05 PM EST / CBS News

Investigators with the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department said they were able to recover footage from a Google Nest camera outside the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie — the missing mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie — by extracting “residual data located in backend systems,” raising new questions about how it was possible to retain the video.

Retired special agent Jason Pack told CBS News that locating the missing footage of a masked individual outside Guthrie’s door was “like finding a needle in a haystack,” providing a breakthrough authorities needed more than a week after she was reported missing.

But many are questioning how footage was recovered from a doorbell camera that officials said was disconnected with no active subscription to store video. With a free Google Nest plan, the video should have been deleted within 3 to 6 hours — long after Guthrie was reported missing.

How doorbell cameras store data

Although Nest users with a free plan cannot access cannot access recordings past a certain time frame, cybersecurity experts say doorbell cameras, like Guthrie’s, have built-in backup mechanisms that enable them to store data across multiple layers, which makes short-term recovery possible.

“Internal storage uses a very lazy deletion mechanism, so the data wouldn’t be available to users who didn’t pay,” cybersecurity expert Alex Stamos explained to CBS News. “The video for non-subscribers would be marked for deletion, but depending on the exact implementation details, the actual files might not be deleted for days and the actual data wouldn’t be overwritten until the storage was needed.”

Patrick Jackson, a former NSA data researcher and the chief technology officer for privacy and security company Disconnect, added, “There’s kind of this old saying that data is never deleted, it’s just renamed. And I think this is a perfect, you know, showing of this where once this data’s uploaded, they may mark it for deletion, but it may never get deleted.”

Jackson said most doorbell cameras also have a tamper mode, a security feature that alerts a user when a device is being disconnected or damaged. He believes this may serve as a signal for companies to hold onto data for a longer period of time.

“From Google’s server perspective, it knows if that device goes offline,” Jackson said. “And so if the last event was tamper detected, and it’s a motion event, it could tag it in a way where Google may not delete that and may know that this could have some value to some law enforcement.”

Jackson said there’s nothing in the terms of service that would prevent Google from activating this feature and retaining video for a longer period of time. He suspects most users aren’t aware of this potential feature.

Implications for future investigations

“This is Google tipping their hand for potentially a capability that maybe they’ve never disclosed,” Jackson said. “And maybe this rose to the occasion where they felt, OK, you know, we do have this ability, we’re going to use it for this occasion.”

According to Google’s cloud storage protection backup recovery overview, “Cloud Storage offers a variety of options to help you protect your data from accidental or malicious deletion and recover your data in the event of a disaster. These options can be useful for legal or regulatory compliance, as well as for protecting data that is critical to your business.”

FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News that authorities executed lawful searches and turned to private sector companies to “expedite results and then go into their systems and actually excavate material that people would think would normally be deleted and no one would look for.”

In a transparency report, Nest explained how the company responds to court orders or requests from law enforcement.

“When we get a request for user information, we review it carefully and only provide information within the scope and authority of the request. Privacy and security are incredibly important to us. Before complying with a request, we make sure it follows the law and Nest’s policies. We notify users about legal demands when appropriate, unless prohibited by law or court order. And if we think a request is overly broad, we’ll seek to narrow it,” the company stated online.

Jackson said the recovery of critical footage from Guthrie’s free account could open Google up to a flood of future law enforcement inquiries.

“We’re not the only ones as consumers looking at this kind of alarm,” Jackson said. “Law enforcement folks are looking at this as like, oh, this could be a new capability that we could add to our pipeline for when we’re trying to source video footage.”

CBS News has reached out to Google for comment on the Nest footage. A Google spokesperson previously told CBS News, “We are assisting law enforcement with their investigation,” and adding that “this is an ongoing investigation, and we cannot share further details at this time.”