A rift between local and federal authorities searching for Nancy Guthrie surfaced publicly this week when Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, accused a sheriff’s department in southern Arizona of not cooperating with the bureau during the case’s early days.
Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County, who has bristled at past reports of tension between his agency and federal law enforcement, denied the claim. He said coordination between his officers and the F.B.I. began soon after learning of the disappearance of Ms. Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
Mr. Patel, who delivered his criticism on the podcast of the Fox News host Sean Hannity, has become the latest and highest-profile official to question how Sheriff Nanos has handled the search for Ms. Guthrie, 84, who has been missing since Feb. 1.
“What we, the F.B.I., do is say: ‘Hey, we’re here to help. What do you need? What can we do?’” Mr. Patel said, adding that earlier involvement could have allowed the bureau to recover more evidence, more quickly. “And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation.”
Sheriff Nanos, in a written statement, refuted Mr. Patel’s comments, saying that the F.B.I. was involved from the start. A member of an F.B.I. task force responded to the scene on Feb. 1, the sheriff added.
“The F.B.I. was promptly notified by both our department and the Guthrie family,” Sheriff Nanos said. “While the F.B.I. director was not on the scene, coordination with the bureau began without delay.”
Mr. Patel said in a Feb. 3 interview that the F.B.I. was “on the ground there” working with sheriff’s deputies. And on the same day, Jon Edwards, the assistant special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Tucson office, appeared alongside Sheriff Nanos at a news conference.
The bureau was “providing any and all investigative support that the sheriff’s department needs,” Mr. Edwards said at the time, including conducting interviews and analyzing cellphone data.
The F.B.I. did not respond to questions asking Mr. Patel — who has a penchant for making off-the-cuff statements that prove to be inaccurate — to elaborate on his remarks and to provide specific examples of the Sheriff’s Department hindering the bureau’s access to the case.
The back-and-forth between Mr. Patel and Sheriff Nanos was a striking example of open conflict between the embattled chiefs of the two agencies leading the investigation into Ms. Guthrie’s kidnapping, a case that for months has alarmed the nation and apparently stumped the authorities. There have been no notable developments in the case for months.
Even as it has dragged on, Ms. Guthrie’s family has avoided publicly criticizing the authorities. In a March interview that aired on the “Today” show, Savannah Guthrie was asked directly how her family felt about the way the search had been conducted.
“Well, it’s still going,” she said. “And people have worked tirelessly — tirelessly — and we see that. But we need answers. We cannot be at peace without knowing.”
But grumblings about cooperation between local and federal officials have been circulating for months and surfacing anonymously in news reports. Sheriff Nanos has repeatedly denied that there is discord behind the scenes, and has maintained that his department has a close working relationship with the F.B.I.
The Guthrie case put a bright spotlight on the sheriff, who suddenly found himself in the middle of a media maelstrom. Journalists dug into his background and past conduct, in Pima County and elsewhere, resurfacing a string of scandals. In 2016, the F.B.I. investigated his department for misuse of funds; in 2023, the Arizona attorney general’s office investigated his response to a reported sexual assault by a deputy.
And, amid the mounting scrutiny that followed Ms. Guthrie’s disappearance, The Arizona Republic found that Sheriff Nanos had misrepresented his work experience and disciplinary history, prompting an inquiry from the Pima County board of supervisors.
Members of the board, which has a Democratic majority, have long been critical of the Democratic sheriff’s conduct. They are now examining his handling of the department budget, his coordination with federal immigration officials and allegations that he retaliated against a political opponent.
The review, which could lead the board to reprimand or attempt to remove Sheriff Nanos, is not directly related to Ms. Guthrie’s disappearance. But that case helped highlight his track record, said Matt Heinz, a Democratic Pima County supervisor who has called on the sheriff to resign. Mr. Heinz said he hoped Mr. Patel’s comments would be a precursor to a federal investigation into Sheriff Nanos.
“I’m glad that the F.B.I. director is engaging here because he has significant authority and power to do something that would help Pima County,” Mr. Heinz said. “And that is to relieve us of Sheriff Nanos.”
The sheriff has denied reports of wrongdoing and has struck an increasingly defiant tone in his responses.
“I’m glad they throw rocks at me, not my team,” he said on a local radio show in March. “I’ll be your bad guy. I’ll be your villain.”
Reis Thebault is a Phoenix-based reporter for The Times, covering the American Southwest.
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