Internal government emails released by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) show individuals at multiple FBI field offices were assisting with the drafting a report identifying opportunities to mitigate the violent threats posted by “radical-traditionalist Catholics” during the weeks preceding the March 27, 2023, attack on the Covenant School in Nashville by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a transgender man when she claimed the lives of six.
Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday published internal FBI emails that show the agency in February 2023 was drafting a Strategic Perspective Executive Analytic Report (SPEAR), which was titled, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”
This document was built off the agency’s previous memo on “radical-traditional Catholics,” who it identified as Catholics who reject Vatican II and share extremist ideologies, as a possible vector for extremism. It was being drafted for distribution across the entire FBI.
Emails released by Grassley suggested at least two FBI agents, one at a field office in Phoenix, Arizona, and a second in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, expressed skepticism about the purpose of the document, and questioned whether the agency was both serving the Southern Poverty Law Center and creating the document for the benefit of the controversial nonprofit organization.
“Uhmmmm, that is interesting, several thoughts, but mostly, who is the customer,” the Phoenix-based FBI agent wrote in a February 2 email to the second. “Is anyone really asking for a product like this? Apparently are at the behest of the SPLC…”
The Milwaukee-based agent replied four days later, “our overreliance on the SPLC for hate designations is … problematic.”
Many have speculated that the FBI has refused to release Hale’s full writings, despite an ongoing federal lawsuit by The Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and parent company Star News Digital Network, Inc. (SNDM), due to reticence to reveal the killer’s obsession with transgenderism, as was revealed when The Star published the killer’s 2023 journal last September.
Those involved in such speculation include U.S. Representative John Rose (R-TN-06), who was allowed by the FBI to review the killer’s writings last month.
“Like many of you, I have long suspected some of this information was shielded from public view because this shooter considered herself to be transgender,” said Rose. “After having read through the evidence, I remain convinced that there is no good justification for keeping most of the evidence from the public square.”
Notably, the SPLC expressed its support for transgenderism on March 31, 2023, just four days after Hale’s attack, when it recognized International Transgender Day of Visibility.
“Transgender Day of Visibility is more important now than ever. Despite positive trends in attitudes about transgender rights that lead most people to support nondiscrimination protections for transgender people, research shows the public can potentially be easily manipulated by disinformation about transgender identity,” declared the SPLC, claiming that an “anti-LGBTQ+ movement has been engaged in such a campaign since at least 2015.”
The nonprofit also offered its endorsement for transgender treatments for children.
“Once the child starts to reach adolescence doctors, parents and the child decide if puberty blockers are necessary,” the SPLC wrote. “Transgender individuals should be able to access the best practices of gender-affirming care at all ages. The disinformation spread by anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans figures and groups put all children at risk and do the very same irreparable damage they accuse gender-affirming care providers of and the transgender community who simply want to live.”
The repeated references to disinformation seem to echo the warnings offered in the memo sent by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) shortly after SNDM and Leahy sued to obtain Hale’s writings in May 2023, when the federal agency claimed the release of “legacy tokens,” including Hale’s writings, could lead to harmful information reaching conspiracy theorists:
Public access to legacy tokens will also facilitate false narratives and inaccurate information. For personal gain, self-professed ‘experts’ will proffer their perspectives on the motivations behind the attack. Many of these pontificators will be inexperienced or untrained, and therefore inaccurate in their assessment, further confusing or potentially inflaming the public. This also may lead to unintended consequences for the segment of the population more vulnerable or open to conspiracy theories, which will undoubtedly abound.”
Grassley released the emails as part of his push to expose the origin of the FBI memo which designated “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as a threat, and revealed through the release that the document “was widely distributed to over 1,000 FBI employees across the country,” before a whistleblower’s actions led to it being abruptly pulled, obscuring key facts about how it was authored.
“I’m determined to get to the bottom of the Richmond memo, and of the FBI’s contempt for oversight in the last administration,” wrote Grassley.
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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].
“Transgender individuals should be able to access the best practices of gender-affirming care ..”
No, they shouldn’t. If someone thinks they’re an eagle, you don’t ‘affirm’ their belief and help them to fly off tall buildings. You treat them for their mental disorder.