While the Federal Bureau of Investigation is fighting any release of the Covenant killer’s manifesto in federal court, an official with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department says the local law enforcement agency would not object to a redacted release of some of the documents.
The problem could be just how law enforcement officials define “redactions.”
In a declaration filed earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee-Nashville Division, the FBI argues that it can’t release any documents from Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, citing an ongoing criminal procedure.
“Release of any information could reasonably be expected to interfere with these pending criminal law enforcement proceedings, as well as potential enforcement proceedings such as spin-off investigations and/or prosecutions that may result from the investigations,” wrote Michale G. Seidel, Section Chief for the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section Information Management Division.
The declaration is part of a response to The Star News Network’s federal lawsuit demanding the FBI release the manifesto and related writings of Hale, the mass shooter who in late March killed three nine-year-olds and three staff members at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School. Hale was fatally shot by police 14 minutes after beginning her deadly assault. The 28-year-old killer identified as a transgender male and was a former Covenant student.
Star News Digital Media Inc., parent company of The Star News Network and The Tennessee Star, filed the federal lawsuit in May after the FBI denied multiple Freedom of Information Act Requests for the records. The U.S. Department of Justice argues that the FBI does not have to release the manifesto under a federal exemption that allows the law enforcement agencies to block documents if there is an ongoing investigation.
“At this time, public disclosure of more detailed information on the application of the following exemptions would undermine the very interests the FBI seeks to protect through its assertion of Exemption …” Seidel wrote.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the city government are making a similar argument as defendant’s in a state records lawsuit, also brought by The Star News Network and others. The plaintiffs argue that, because the shooter is dead and police have said she acted alone, there is no real ongoing criminal investigation or procedure.
In his declaration, MNPD Lt. Brent Gibson told the federal court that he agreed “harmful and irreversible consequences could result from fully disclosing” Hale’s manifesto, but he doesn’t object to partial release of the documents.
“Ideally, the records related to the ongoing criminal investigation should remain confidential until the conclusion of the investigation or any resulting criminal case,” the police officer wrote. “However, MNPD believes that releasing a redacted version of certain of the shooter’s writings would not impede the investigation.”
MNPD officers offered similar concessions in the state lawsuit. The department turned over its redacted version to Tennessee 20th Judicial District Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles for review.
“If the chancery court were to direct the release of the redacted materials in that proceeding over the objection of the intervening parties, MNPD would not oppose the release of those same redacted materials in the federal FOIA action,” Gibson wrote.
It will be a while before Myles acts. A show cause hearing is on hold while a state appeals court panel considers an appeal seeking to stop the Covenant Presbyterian Church, its private elementary school and parents of the school’s students from intervening in the case. All three parties want Hale’s manifesto and related writings to be forever locked away from public inspection.
The appeals court has ordered the show cause hearing postponed until after it decides the intervenor question. With a briefing schedule running through August and an expected slew of legal filings, it could be months before the court rules.
Even if Myles ultimately permits the redacted release of the manifesto, vital information could still be hidden from public inspection.
“If the definition of redactions means the redaction of just about everything, the records might as well have been destroyed,” said John Harris III, executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, one of the plaintiff’s in the state records case.
“Are they saying they are going to redact the names of specific individuals or have a minimal amount of redactions so the documents received have relevant content? Or are they going to give you pieces of paper that look like you put them in an old copy machine with the lid left open?” Harris said.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
When will the Scotty Campbell records be released by the Tennessee General Assembly?
Why is the Falseflag Bureau of Insurrection even involved? Who is Hale’s handler?
More evidence that Tennessee is not in control of Tennessee government.