tom fuentes, we'll get him back. and we will continue to follow this. he is back. tom is back. yes. i'm here. >> oh, you do hear us. >> tom, quick question for you here. what do you make of the fact that the language is similar? the language that we heard to the president in that letter and then also the language that was sent to the mayor, mayor bloomberg of new york, very threatening language, but also ricin found in the mayor's letter? >> well, first of all, if the letters were mailed at approximately the same time, then there'd be no way for a copycat to know what the wording was in the first letter or the second letter compared to the wording of the letter that was sent to the white house and went through the white house screening center. the second thing would be that if the letters have similar text or were mailed from the same postal address, that would indicate that the letters may be connected to each other. that doesn't necessarily mean it connects the letters to an individual yet. that will have to be determined in the investigation. also, it's going to have to be d

tom fuentes is still with us. pick up that final thought you were making, tom, on the information you're getting. there's no evidence to believe, no suggestion that any of these three may have been directly involved or even indirectly involved in the actual planting of a bomb or building of a bomb, anything before the boston marathon bombing, but they may -- keyword may, allegedly have been involved in helping to cover-up evidence or mislead police, is that right? >> right. that's correct, wolf. it doesn't mean that they weren't involved in helping in the bombing, just means as of now they're not going to be charged with that. they are still working the investigation. but they are going to go ahead and bring the charges now that after the fact they may have disposed of items that could have been considered evidence. and in addition made false statements to the fbi. again, under the law you do not have to talk to the fbi in an official investigation, but if you do, you have to tell the truth. apparently they did tal

and joining me now is tom fuentes. does the discovery of explosives, residue in her own home change the investigation as it relates to katherine russell? >> i don't think it changes the investigation because this has been something that they have been looking at from the very beginning, the possibility that she may have known something or been involved, even, and obtaining the materials that were used or somehow allowing them to make the bombs. so that's been something that they have been concerned with and would have looked at from the very start. now, actually gathering the evidence that she was aware of it is another matter. especially even though it's her residents also, it was reported by her attorney early on that she worked seven days a work and 17 hours a day and was rarely home. so it's remotely possible the two brothers made the bombs and cleaned up most of the mess before she got home if that's true. we don't know all the things that the fbi knows at this point or what they have known from the very beginning

let's bring in tom fuentes, cnn's law enforcement analyst and former fbi assistant director. d morning, tom. the issue here, what are you hearing from your sources about whether this is a conspiracy before the bombings or just a conspiracy by a few guys after the fact to try to keep they're friend out of trouble? >> good morning, christine. i think so far they believe it's after. and they helped him by disposing of some of the evidence, the incriminating material that he had in the room which the backpack which contained some of the powder and other paraphernalia, the fireworks, that they put that in a dumpster for him and removed his laptop. >> these charges have been described as easy charges to make right now and holding them on immigration charges up until this point. anything you're hearing that suggests there could be further charges? additionally, there could be other people involved other than just these three? >> well, there could be. i think right now, you know, the charges that they brought on these three are to hold them. so they could add more charges to them at a

i want to bring in tom fuentes. he's a former acitizen tant director of the fbi. tom, good to see how. how important is tamerlan tsarnaev eats wife to this investigation. is she obligated at all to tell what he knows about her husband even though he's dead. >> no she's not. she's a citizen and has her rights that he does not have to talk to the fbi. if she does talk to them it has to be the truth or she's charged with lying to them. she's under no obligation to do that. she does have to let the fbi in if they're serving a search warrant, which they have done and they are removed material from it. she can't obstruct that process but that does not mean she has to talk to them at all. >> let's talk about some of that evidence. the police found explosive residue throughout the tsarnaev home. can she realistically claim she didn't know what was going on inside her own home when police found things in the home hep was living in. >> she can obviously claim it. the problem is going to be not whether it's reasonable for her to claim it, it's going to be whether the prosecut

i want to bring back jeffrey toobin and tom fuentes. jeff, first to you.usband and her brother-in-law, and then she spoke with her husband, tamerlan tsarnaev, on the phone afterwards, but didn't call the fbi or law enforcement, is she in trouble? >> probably not. that's not a crime to fail to report someone who is wanted by the police. again, we talked about this earlier, there is a moral component to that obviously, but i'm not aware of any crime that that would constitute. it certainly is something that the investigators would want to talk to her about. but that alone, the fact that they had this conversation, and she did not report him, is not a prosecutable event, as far as i can tell. >> even though within a matter of a few hours, there was a killing of an m.i.t. police officer and the allegation is that tamerlan tsarnaev, her husband, went out and killed sean collier, this m.i.t. police officer, supposedly to steal his weapon? >> unless the authorities could prove that she was a co-conspirator, that she knew they were going to attack a police officer

i want to bring in cnn security analyst, tom fuentes from washington, d.c.kruk shank in london. paul, do you believe that the future of attacks are the future of terrorism? >> i think they're going to be a significant part of the future of terrorism. not just armies of one, but two or three or four individuals often acting in al qaeda's name. so significant part of the future. >> they've been telling followers, don't get trained by us, but stay home and launch attacks at home. if you look over the united states, you've had several dozen islamist terrorist cases, most of those have been of the lone wolf variety. at the same time it would be wrong to discount the possibility of larger, more sophisticated attacks from al qaeda again hitting the united states in the future. there's still this yemeni affiliate of al qaeda, which has come close to bombing airplanes over the united states in recent years. still has quite a lot of capability. there's still a bomb-maker connected in yemen. if you look across the world. al qaeda and its affiliates have made a lot of g

let's get some perspective now from cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes, he's a former fbi assistant give us a sense, tom, of the significance of this break in this investigation and these three arrests. >> wolf, it shows that the brothers probably got help from several of their friends after the fact, is what it shows. obviously it leads to suspicion that they may have helped them before or assisted with the entire plot of the bombing. we don't know that yet. the authorities may know that, but have not flushed all the evidence out that they want to in that. so in this case they've got plenty of evidence that after the fact they helped the brothers and that they gave false statements to the fbi when they were interviewed, which in official investigation you don't have to talk, but if you do it has to be the truth. you can't lie. and apparently that's the basis of one of the charges. and then the fact that they may have done it together would indicate conspiracy to obstruct justice or make false statements. >> those are very serious charges indeed. do we know, tom, and i know you're w

we want to bring in tom fuentes from new york city. a former fbi assistant director and cnn law enforcement analyst. welcome, tom. >> good morning, carol. >> according to many sources, these two suspects, finished building their bombs quickly some of quickly they actually drove around boston trying to find a target. cased police department eed eee finally settled on the boston marathon. does this sound like a well organized plot? >> not really. but this is what dzhokhar told the fbi shortly after his arrest. they are skeptical. they are not accepting the information he told them completely 10 0%. verifying it, going through the investigation to see if there are indications that what he says turns out to be true. much of it so far has turned out to be the way he described it. they have a tendency on this thing to believe they were somewhat disorganized as to what they were going to do, when they were going to do it, based on finishing the bomb. >> now we found out that they had originally planned to detonate these bombs, supposedly, on j

i want to bring in cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes, who is also former assistant director of , and ashleigh banfield also joining me here as well. but, tom, let me begin with you. we know that these suspects are slated to appear in this federal court here in boston, facing the federal charges. again, conspiracy of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. and as we're reading through the criminal complaint, forgive me for -- ashleigh and i and jeff toobin, remarking on the sheer stupidity if these allegations are true that these young people would have done such a thing. >> you're right, brooke. i think the stupidity, you know of other friends that have been interviewed, that, you know, tell the reporters and tell others that they recognized that it was dzhokhar, they recognized the pictures put out by the fbi on thursday afternoon that went, you know, worldwide media and internet coverage. and even after recognizing them thought, well, you know, i don't want to throw him under the bus, then call the authorities because they're friends and didn't want to get them in t

hassan shively, tom fuentes, thank you both so much for joining us.e law enforcement is abiding by the highest standards. >> thank you. >>> tonight a megaconcert is being called upon to haiz raise money for boston's families, musical legends, aerosmith, james taylor and comediennes dane crook and stephen bright. >>> new video into cnn shows the moment a freight train carrying chemicals crashed into a truck in baltimore. this video the collision triggered an explosion and fire. the truck driver was seriously injured in the accident. investigators are looking into the cause of the crash. >>> also this morning, a frightening new spike in one of america's most passionate debates. the fight over gun control. federal investigators are rivering up their probe of what could be deadly letters sent to mayor michael bloomberg. two separate tests say it was riens, a mere pinpoint can kill within days. deborah feyerick has been working her sources on this story. deb, tell us more. >> reporter: we can tell you that if, in fact, we can prove it is ricin, it will tak

we asked cnn contributor tom fuentes. >> they'll determine if they can identify someone actually putting surveillance cameras at postal facilities or some other method. as far as the paper, the letters, the envelopes, obviously they'll be looking for any kind of dna, fingerprinting, body fluid, you name it. >> profilers will be on the case, fuentes says, and they'll have the wording of the letters as a clue. the letters to new york mayor michael bloomberg and mark glaze say in part, you will ha of to kill me and my family before you get my guns. anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. what's in this letter is nothing compared to what i've got plapd for you. >> from the nature of the wording, the actual expressions used, the grammer used, they'll be trying to identify by age but maybe a region where that person may have grown up, and obtained their language skills. >> as for their intended targets, mark glaze opened his letter right here next to his office in washington on sunday. now, a police report says he opened it, saw the threatening message, then dropped the let

. >> former cia and nsa director general michael hayden and law enforcement analyst tom fuentes will. >> and the desperate search for missing mother jessica heeringa continues this morning as police try to identify a possible suspect. we'll talk with her mother and fiance about the search. >> and it is may 1st. but you would not believe it in boulder, colorado, also the midwest. they can expect serious wintry weather this week. we're going to have a live forecast of what's behind the temperatures at the top of the hour. >> and sheryl crow is on a mission to feed 50 million americans at risk of going hungry. she is going to join us live with her call to action. looking forward to talking with her. >> very exciting. >> 44 minutes past the hour. there are new developments in the ricin investigation in mississippi. an fbi affidavit unsealed yesterday shows why officials have arrested james everett dutschke. he is accused of sending letters tainted with the toxic substance to president obama and two others but the affidavit does not provide a motive. here's alina machado. >> reporter: we