More than six weeks after a gender-confused young woman shot and killed three children and three adults at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, officials are still refusing to release her manifesto. Adding to a growing list of lawsuits for the manifesto’s release, Star News Digital Media, Inc., based in Nashville, has filed a lawsuit against the FBI for refusing to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Given that the Nashville shooting at a Christian school — with the perpetrator being an angry “transgender” female who believed herself to be a male — did not fit the narrative of the Left that the most dangerous enemy in America is a white man with a gun, it is suspicious that authorities have refused to release the shooter’s manifesto. Since that manifesto has been reported — according to law-enforcement sources who have seen it — to spell out the young woman’s motives, it would be in the public interest to make it available. And as this writer said in an article about growing violence among the LGBTQ mob in the wake of the Nashville shooting:
Meanwhile, authorities still seem to be stonewalling the public release of the manifesto left behind by the young woman responsible for the Nashville massacre. Since such manifestos are often published before the smoke has settled, it is suspicious that police and the FBI are hiding this one. It is clear that this shooting — perpetrated by a radicalized LGBTQ activist with reported mental health issues — does not fit their narrative, and it is suspected that the manifesto will show that the shooter targeted the school because it was a Christian institution.
Though the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) had promised to release the manifesto within days or weeks, it and the FBI are still refusing to do so. After waiting more than six weeks, the Tennessee Firearms Association and retired Hamilton County Sheriff James Hammond, as well as Clata Renee Brewer in conjunction with the National Police Association, are suing MNPD for the release of the manifesto, according to a report by The Tennessean.
Now, those two suits are joined by a third from the Tennessee Star. In its complaint against the FBI, the Star claims that it “requested the manifesto from FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on April 20, 2023″ and met all requirements for that request. The complaint goes on to state:
FBI denied the request, claiming that releasing the manifesto “could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.” Plaintiffs then appealed to the Department of Justice Office of Information Policy, which affirmed FBI’s denial and paved the way for this lawsuit.
But, as the complaint points out, the claim that releasing the manifesto “could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings” is false on its face. As the complaint states:
Hale is dead and no threat remains to the public related to the events of March 27. There is no criminal prosecution, investigation, or anything resembling an “enforcement proceeding.” FBI is apparently attempting to interpret the manifesto, but at this point, interpreting or reviewing the manifesto is an academic exercise and certainly not an enforcement proceeding. In short, there is simply no reason why FBI cannot release the manifesto. In fact, in the most recent mass shootings involving FBI, manifestos were released to the press sometimes within hours of the attack.
It has been long enough, and the public has an urgent right to know why this tragedy happened, how future events may be prevented, and what policies should be in place to address this and other similar tragedies. FBI has no right to retain a monopoly on this information.
As to the fact that “in the most recent mass shootings involving FBI, manifestos were released to the press sometimes within hours of the attack,” the complaint lists examples confirming that the FBI’s position regarding the Nashville shooting “contradicts its recent practice in mass shootings where the perpetrator has died.” Those examples include the mass killing by Orlando Harris in St. Louis on October 24, 2022; the mass killing by Andre Marcus Bing at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, on November 22, 2022; and the Michigan State University mass killing by Anthony Dwayne McRae on February 13, 2023. In two of those three examples, the manifestos of the killers were made public within days; in the third, public disclosure was made within three weeks.
But for some reason, the FBI is stonewalling — flat refusing — to release the manifesto of Audrey Hale. As the complaint states:
One could speculate as to why FBI has released so many other manifestos, but not this one. But such speculation is unnecessary for the purposes of this lawsuit. The simple fact is that FBI has not justified its refusal to release this manifesto under FOIA; there is no reasonable chance release would interfere with an “enforcement proceeding” under FOIA’s exception.
Given that a study from 2022 found that “transgender youth” were among the groups at highest risk for “violent radicalization”; that a “Trans Day of Vengeance” — which had been planned and promoted online for weeks before the shooting — was scheduled to take place five days after the shooting; and that in the immediate wake of the shooting, Nashville police stated that Hale had “acted totally alone” and had also been “planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School,” it seems obvious that the public has a right to know what is in her manifesto. It also seems obvious that there is something in it that the Biden FBI does not want the public to know.
