In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has no record of any documents containing the terms “legacy token” or “legacy tokens,” even though The Tennessee Star has such a document from the FBI in its possession.
“Based on the information you provided, we conducted a main entity record search of the Central Records System (CRS) per our standard search policy,” the FBI said in response to the FOIA request. “However, we were unable to identify records subject to the FOIPA that are responsive to your request. Therefore, your request is being closed. If you have additional information pertaining to the subject of your request, please submit a new request providing the details, and we will conduct an additional search.”
On June 5, The Star published a memo from the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group in Quantico, Virginia. The memo reveals that it was sent by the FBI’s Behavioral Threat Assessment Center (BTAC), the home of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU-1).
It was addressed to Chief John Drake of the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and dated May 11, 2023, about two months after the Covenant School shooting. Though it does not directly mention the Çovenant killer, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, it describes the FBI’s preferred policy of not releasing legacy tokens, items like manifestos and journals left behind by mass killers.
The FBI publicly defines a legacy token as “a communication prepared by the offender to claim credit for the attack and articulate the motives underlying the shooting.”
“Future attackers will immerse themselves in and study these materials for inspiration and tactics,” the FBI says in the memo, justifying its direction not to publish legacy tokens, adding that “[i]nfamy and notoriety are major motivators for many attackers,” and “dispersion of legacy tokens through the media will only further the infamous and notorious goals of the offender.”
It also says that reading such materials will “further permeate the false narrative that the majority of attackers are mentally ill.”
Hale was diagnosed with five different mental illnesses.
The following is The Star’s recent FOIA request:
To whom it may concern:The Tennessee Star is seeking to ascertain information regarding the FBI’s policy on “legacy tokens.”
After The Covenant School shooting in March of 2023, the FBI sent a memo to Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake instructing him not to release the “legacy tokens” (manifestos, journals, diaries) of Audrey Elizabeth Hale: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kiwP8-BKlAXVCm0gCf3hbGpf__pPAEFx/view
Since The Star’s press inquiries about the FBI’s “legacy token” policy have gone unreturned, please let this email serve as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the following information:
– Any internal FBI document containing the terms “legacy token” or “legacy tokens.”
– Any document produced by the FBI and circulated externally to any other organization containing the terms “legacy token” or “legacy tokens.”
After the denied FOIA request, The Star reached out to the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs and asked the following:
“The FBI‘s response to the request was that no such documents existed. However, The Tennessee Star is in possession of such a document, which was sent to Chief John Drake of the Metro Nashville Police Department on May 11, 2023. How is it possible that no such documents exist if The Tennessee Star is already in possession of one?”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X/Twitter.
Photo “FBI Logo” by Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Does anyone still believe that the FBI is not a compromised operation?