The FBI declined on Monday to confirm to The Tennessee Star the authenticity of a memo it sent to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that “strongly discourages” the release of “legacy tokens” left by those who commit devastating attacks like the Covenant School attack orchestrated by Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
The Star published the memo last week, revealing it was addressed to MNPD Chief John Drake and sent on May 11, 2023.
According to the memo’s date, it was sent just two days after Star News Digital Media, Inc. and its CEO, Michael Patrick Leahy, filed a federal lawsuit against the FBI to compel the release of Hale’s writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto, and one day after Star News Digital Media, Inc. and Leahy filed a lawsuit against Metro Nashville Davidson County Government, also to compel the release of Hale’s writings.
The memo’s letterhead reveals that it originated at the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group in Quantico, Virginia. The text of the unsigned memo explains that it was sent from the FBI’s Behavioral Threat Assessment Center (BTAC), which houses the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU-1).
While the memo does not mention Hale by name, it explains individuals who commit mass shootings “often leave behind items to claim credit for the attack and / or articulate the motivation behind it,” which the FBI calls “legacy tokens,” which appears to be a term coined by the FBI before June 2018.
According to the memo, the FBI “strongly discourages” the release of “legacy tokens.” The FBI recommended withholding such items from the public, citing concerns about “conspiracy theories,” copycat attacks, and advancing “the false narrative that the majority of attackers are mentally ill.”
The FBI also raised the “existing precedent” for the destruction of “legacy tokens,” noting “the decision to destroy the ‘Basement Tapes’ produced by the offenders of the Columbine High School attack.”
In a June 4 press inquiry, The Star asked the FBI to confirm it sent the memo, that it was sent in relation to the Covenant investigation, and to confirm whether the federal agency received a response from Drake regarding the memo.
The FBI did not answer specific questions in its response. It explained to The Star that its “standard practice is not to comment on specific products,” apparently referring to the memo as an FBI product.
According to the FBI, while its standard practice forbids “addressing” the “veracity” of its products, “the FBI regularly shares information with our law enforcement partners to assist in protecting the communities they serve.”
The FBI’s response to The Star additionally stated that the agency “always encourages members of the public to be vigilant and report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
MNPD Public Affairs Director Don Aaron previously told The Star the FBI’s BTAC “has assisted” in the Covenant investigation since Hale committed her March 27, 2023, attack on the Covenant School that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members.
Though Aaron suggested the memo “is part of the open case file” and “protected” due to the ongoing status of the investigation, he stated that MNPD had not destroyed any materials related to the Covenant case.
In addition to a number of documents related to the Covenant investigation, The Star confirmed last week that it had obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings, which had been recovered from a journal in her vehicle at the Covenant School.
Since then, The Star published dozens of articles, including Hale’s own words. It has also been established that Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), and she was prescribed at least three medications to treat mental health issues, including two anxiety drugs and the common antidepressant Lexapro.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
The FBI, as corrupt at the CIA
They need to be disbanded.
and the HELL with their “feelings”
This perp hated Christians, but wasn’t a “hate crime”??
There would be unending releases of tokens if this was a MAGA person.