The Tennessee Star on Friday extended a settlement offer to the Biden-Harris FBI through attorneys at the Department of Justice (DOJ) representing the FBI that would see the federal government drop its opposition to the release of the writings obtained by the FBI that were left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old woman who self-identified as a man, and killed six at the Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.
Through their attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, offered the FBI, through its DOJ attorney, the opportunity to withdraw their objection to the release of Hale’s writings before President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential transition is complete.
Both Leahy and SNDM originally sued the FBI in May 2023 to compel the release of Hale’s writings. The lawsuit remains ongoing, with the Biden-Harris DOJ defending the federal agency, after U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger received hundreds of pages written by Hale for in-camera review in April.
The settlement offer would allow the FBI to withdraw its objections to the disclosure of Hale’s writings and other records related to the attack on the Covenant School in exchange for Leahy and SNDM agreeing to dismiss its lawsuit with prejudice.
Leahy and SNDM have also requested the DOJ pay its attorney fees for the lawsuit, and would reduce this amount by 25 percent as part of the settlement offer. The fees would be paid by the FBI as part of the settlement.
The offer was extended to the DOJ and FBI only days after Trump nominated Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) to serve as the U.S. Attorney General, declaring Gaetz would restore “Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency at DOJ.”
Prior to that announcement, Leahy predicted during the Wednesday broadcast of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show that Trump’s DOJ will “look very kindly on our request.”
After Gaetz was announced, Leahy suggested the chances for the DOJ to drop its opposition to the release increased.
“With the nomination of Bannon-friendly Representative Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, the likelihood the request will be honored appears very high,” said Leahy on Wednesday.
Though both the FBI and Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) retain dozens of handwritten journals left by Hale, who was born a biological female but identified as a transgender man at the time of her death, The Star obtained the killer’s 2023 journal in June from a source familiar with the investigation and published dozens of articles revealing its contents.
In the separate, Tennessee lawsuit seeking to compel MNPD to release Hale’s writings, Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles ruled on July 4 that not one page of Hale’s writings will be released, citing the copyright ownership of Hale’s work allegedly held by the Covenant Children’s Trust. Both SNDM and another plaintiff have appealed Myles’ decision.
The Star ultimately published the entirety of Hale’s 2023 journal in September after obtaining legal backing. The pages reveal the killer wrote extensively about transgenderism, obsessed over her former classmates, and planned her attack at the Covenant School for years.
Myles additionally ruled that MNPD is not required to release investigative files about Hale’s attack until the conclusion of its investigation. While the attack occurred more than two years ago, MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron told The Star this week that the police force’s “goal” is to finish the final “documentation” phase of its investigation by January 1, 2025.
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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].
