A federal judge ordered the FBI to hand over the manifesto that was left by a Nashville transgender mass shooter for judicial review after a local news outlet filed a lawsuit against the federal law enforcement agency.
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a female who police said identified as a transgender male, began the mayhem in March of last year, killing three 9-year-old children identified as Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus, and William Kinney. The three slain adults were identified as Mike Hill, 61, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60.
Authorities said at the time that the shooter left behind a “manifesto” from her vehicle as well as other documents. The Nashville police chief last year said the documents would be released to the public, but they never have been.
But on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Traugera ordered the FBI to provide the documents for an “in camera review” after the FBI was sued by The Tennessee Star’s parent company and editor-in-chief, Patrick Leahy, to release them to the public. It means that a judge has to now determine what portions of the manifesto should be made public.
“The court finds that the FBI’s assertions cannot be evaluated adequately based on the available materials and that, although the FBI’s position may ultimately be well-founded, it has not supported that position with sufficient clarity or detail to permit the court to recognize the asserted exemptions at this time,” the judge wrote in the order on March 15.
Judge Traugera also noted there was “significant public interest” in the manifesto and law enforcement objectives that were argued by the FBI. “No showing has been made that the requested materials will be so voluminous that they would pose a significant danger to judicial economy,” she wrote.
In a statement, Mr. Leahy said via his website that the order is a victory for people who want to understand the motivations of Ms. Hale.
“The court’s order today is a significant victory for the public’s right to know about the motives of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who murdered six innocent Nashvillians at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023,” Mr. Leahy said.
He added that the court blocked the “FBI’s attempt to prevent Star News Digital Media from obtaining the documents collected by law enforcement that might explain the motives of Hale.”
“I believe the court’s order for an in camera review of all the relevant documents is the right course of action, and I am confident that subsequent to that review the court will order the release of all these documents, because it is in the public interest to do so,” the editor-in-chief continued.
Last year, conservative commentator Stephen Crowder released what he said was Ms. Hale’s manifesto. The manifesto showed that Ms. Hale, who was white, allegedly wrote that she wanted to “kill all you little crackers,” referring to white children who she said had “white privilege.” She also wrote: “Kill those kids!!! Those crackers going to private fancy schools.”
The Epoch Times has not been able to authenticate the manifesto.
At the time, when asked about the release of the alleged manifesto, an FBI spokesperson said last year, “As this matter is being addressed by the courts, the FBI will not be commenting on the reported documents.”
The Nashville Police Department said that it was not able to confirm the alleged manifesto’s authenticity.
“We have not released that and at this point we are unable to confirm the authenticity of what has been released, although we are looking into that at this very moment,” a spokesperson for the Metro Nashville Police Department told news outlets last year.
Lack of Transparency?
Since the shooting, questions have been raised about why the FBI, other law enforcement agencies, or the state of Tennessee haven’t yet released the manifesto. Some conservatives claimed that because Ms. Hale was transgender, the manifesto wouldn’t be released.
“It still remains my feeling that if this had not been a transgender shooter, if this had been a shooter of any kind … we would have stuck to the long-standing practice in our country of being transparent within 48 hours,” former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said last August during an event in Tennessee, saying that the FBI and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee were hiding it from the public’s view.
“But what we do need to know is this killer’s motives, this killer’s psychological state of mind, the truth of the matter is that we have a mental health epidemic in this country that is driving a wave of violence around this country,” he added at the time.
Mr. Ramaswamy pointed out that after prior mass shootings, manifestos written by the suspects were released within days of the incident.
A spokesperson for Mr. Lee’s office told the New York Post that the state isn’t involved with the investigation. “Only the FBI and Metro Nashville Police are involved,” the spokesperson said at the time. According to the Post’s report, the Nashville Police Department technically remains in control of the Hale files.
The Epoch Times contacted the FBI for comment Wednesday.
From The Epoch Times
