Earlier this month, attorneys for Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Star and The Star News Network, filed a motion after the leak of three pages of Covenant Presbyterian School mass murderer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s writings. The motion asserts the leak proves, “assuming the three pages’ authenticity,” that the FBI “could have selectively released” redacted portions of the manifesto without jeopardizing ongoing investigations.
In its response, the FBI again refuses to confirm the authenticity of Hale’s racially charged writings, asking the U.S. District Court Judge Aleta A. Trauger to reject limited discovery. The agency insists, “Plaintiffs seek extraordinary and unprecedented discovery.”
“The Court should reject Plaintiffs’ highly unusual, extraordinary request to propound discovery on the FBI asking it to authenticate that three leaked pages come from the manifesto the FBI possesses as part of its ongoing investigation into the Covenant Shooting,” states the response, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee Nashville Division.
“FBI has once again said, ‘Just trust us,’” Daniel Lennington, associate counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the Milwaukee public interest firm representing The Star in the federal lawsuit, said of the agency’s latest arguments for keeping Hale’s records under lock and key.
“If anything has been learned from the last six years it’s that the public does not trust the FBI any longer and has lost confidence in its ability to be fair and impartial,” Lennington added.
The FBI has yet to confirm the authenticity of the manifesto pages shared online, but the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has confirmed they are Hale’s writings. Prior to that admission, The Star was among the first outlets to independently verify the pages were part of Hale’s manifesto.
Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who identified as a transgender male, in late March fatally shot six people — three 9-year-old students and three staff members — at the private Christian elementary school. Hale was shot and killed by responding police officers.
The FBI and the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) have refused to turn over Hale’s manifesto and related writings, insisting there is an “ongoing investigation.” MNPD officials have said that Hale was the only suspect and that releasing redacted records would not hurt the claimed investigation.
Earlier this month, conservative comedian and pundit Steven Crowder published three images of pages from Hale’s writings, some of which include racist tirades. Hale, who was white and identified as a man named Aiden, on one page wrote, “Wanna kill all you little crackers!! Bunch of little f****ts w/your white privlages [sic].”
The killer, who had for a time attended Covenant Presbyterian School, also scrawled on a page dated February 2, 2023, about the students “going to fancy private schools with those fancy kwakis [Sic] + sports backpacks w/ their daddies mustangs + convertibles.”
Crowder said the writings expose a radicalized leftist “steeped … in the modern progressive ideology.”
FBI officials won’t say if they are treating the school shootings as a hate crime.
“As this matter is being addressed by the courts, the FBI will not be commenting on the reported documents,” Elizabeth Clement-Webb, Public Affairs and Community Engagement officer for the FBI’s Memphis Field Office previously told The Star.
In a July filing, the FBI argued that releasing even one page of Hale’s manifesto would jeopardize “active and ongoing” investigations related to “potential federal crimes, which could include whether underlying bias provided motivation in the attack, or if any co-conspirators or like-minded contacts were involved.”
Nicholas Barry, senior counsel for civil rights law firm America First Legal, said the three pages of the Hale manifesto necessitate the full release of the records. Barry represents Star News Digital Media Inc. and The Star in a multi-plaintiff lawsuit against Metro Nashville in state court.
Metro Law Director Wally Dietz insists that a judge’s order precludes MNPD from releasing the manifesto until the lawsuit is settled. Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said he stands by Dietz’s legal opinion, an argument Barry said doesn’t hold water.
“The Court has not ordered that these records remain sealed until the Court decides whether they should be released. The decision to release records is Metro’s decision, and it is Metro’s burden to prove that there is a valid justification for their nondisclosure,” the attorney said. “At a minimum, those records should be released immediately.”
In the federal lawsuit, the FBI scoffs at what it describes as the plaintiffs’ “subjective, layperson assessment” of the three pages and their “value to the ongoing investigations.” Said assessment, FBI attorneys argue, is “made in isolation of other evidence that the FBI may possess” and “cannot undermine the FBI’s judgment about how release of responsive records would harm its investigation.”
Lennington said nothing in the FBI’s response disputes that the Hale manifesto could have been released, at least partially.
“They have not explained to the court why or how their investigation could be impeded by the release of the remainder of the manifesto,” the attorney said.
Lennington expects to file a reply with the judge on Tuesday. The court has not made any ruling since July.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Background Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.
There are probably provocateurs or handlers involved who aided and abetted this perp. The. FBI has a history of that. Mass murders at schools are the pretext of choice for the citizen disarmament agenda. The MNPD (particularly two officers) did an excellent in preventing a much larger death count which was likely a disappointment to the gun control agenda. The secrecy here is a giveaway to some really clandestine evil stuff.
this just goes to show the government is desperate to hide its contents. it must be REALLY bad.
there must be something really bad for these guys to resist turning this over for us to see.
It’s these little milestones where everyone needs to realize that we are not in the America we were taught that we lived in growing up.
There is no equal application of the law. There is no transparency in government. There are no honest men in the FBI. The courts have abdicated their responsibility to follow the written law. The police openly prosecute and intimidate their whistleblowers. The politicians smear their opposition for the mass murder committed by their own supporters. The media cheers the corruption and aids in suppressing the truth.
We are in the Wile E. Coyote phase of Weimar America. We’re over the cliff already, holding up the Yikes! sign but haven’t looked down yet.
When the FBI takes over a local matter, you know they’re covering for someone who is involved & who could be held liable for Audrey’ s mental decline.
The public is entitled to know who in her life could have or should have intervened in her decline. What medications was she on to make her transform into a man? And who was prescribing? Who wasn’t telling her that it’s impossible to change your sex? Who didn’t tell her she was sick? Rather than encourage her to go down this dangerous path?
There are people who are responsible for the loss of innocent lives here besides Audrey Hale, or they would release all the documents she left behind.
It’s your typical Fed Cover Up
The Federal Bureau of Investigations has done everything within its power to undermine any trust the public had in its ability to be honest. Insofar as an ongoing investigation, perhaps they are waiting for the statute of limitations to run out on any crimes committed by friends and family of Joe Biden.
Release the rest of it…….all of it….