Tag: Judge Aleta A. Trauger

Reporter Details Legal Ramifications of FBI Releasing Covenant Killer Documents Exclusively to Third Party Amid Ongoing Lawsuit

Kaitlin Housler
MPL pappert

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) release of the 1,299 pages of writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale to independent journalist Megyn Kelly may have legal ramifications as a case brought by The Star’s parent company regarding the materials continues to be litigated in federal court.

Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy sued the FBI in May 2023 to compel the agency to release Hale’s writings.

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Tennessee Star Invites the FBI and DOJ to Release Covenant Manifesto, Settle Lawsuit Ahead of Trump Transition

Tom Pappert
Michael Patrick Leahy

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.

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Tennessee Star’s Michael Patrick Leahy to Urge DOJ to End Opposition to Release of Covenant Killer’s Manifesto amid Presidential Transition

Tom Pappert
MPL DOJ

Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy announced on Wednesday he and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, will ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its opposition to the release of the written documents left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale prior to her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of six.

Leahy announced the decision during the Wednesday broadcast of the Michael Patrick Leahy Show, when he explained The Star has “decided to turn our attention back to freedom of information act, transparency requests that we’ve had going some time related to the Covenant killer manifesto,” in the wake of the 2024 elections.

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Sponsor of Tennessee Abortion Trafficking Law Remains ‘Confident’ in Positive Outcome After Federal Judge Blocks Enforcement

Tom Pappert
Tennessee Str Rep. Jason Zachary and Judge Aleta Arthur Trauger

State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) on Saturday confirmed he remains “confident” Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti will successfully defend the Tennessee law that bans abortion trafficking after U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger (pictured above, left) temporarily blocked it with a Friday ruling.

In the latest development in the court case brought by Representative Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) against the law which prohibits non-parental guardians from facilitating the travel of a minor for the purpose of obtaining an abortion, The Associated Press reported Trauger noted ruling the Tennessee General Assembly is prohibited from making “it a crime to communicate freely” about legal abortion.

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