More than seven months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s murderous rampage at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School, Governor Bill Lee says he remains “frustrated” by the lack of transparency from law enforcement officials.
Lee’s office did not return The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment Wednesday regarding conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s release this week of three shocking pages from Hale’s “Death Day” manifesto.
Lee did issue a statement earlier this week insisting he will “continue to push for more information and urge MNPD [Metro National Police Department] to address the horrific pages published” by Crowder’s investigative reporting unit.
Exactly how the governor intends to do that isn’t clear. He did say that the state is not involved in the investigation and has no legal authority.
But Tennessee’s chief executive does have the authority to review criminal investigation files of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), said Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. And Lee would also probably have the authority to publicly release the Hale manifesto and related writings, Fisher said.
As the head of the executive branch, the governor has authority over the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
It’s not likely he will release any of the records, but has Lee reviewed them? His communications director did not respond.
“I would imagine if the governor really wanted to see something in those files he could, but I also imagine he would not routinely interfere or want to interfere with that,” Fisher said.
TBI records are confidential but they are open to inspection by “elected members of the general assembly,” through a resolution by either house or of a standing or joint committee.
Bureau officials also have said they would allow lawmakers to examine the file.
But the MNPD and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have denied multiple requests to release the voluminous writings of the shooter, which include at least 20 journals, a suicide note and memoir, according to court filings.
Hale, a 28-year-old biological woman who identified as a transgender male, fatally shot 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney and three adult staff members of the private Christian elementary school on the morning of March 27. Responding police shot and killed Hale.
The Covenant Presbyterian Church, its private elementary school, and parents of the school’s students have sought to block the release of Hale’s writings, arguing they would create copycat shooters, put the school at more risk, and bring back terrifying memories.
Star News Digital Media, the parent company of The Tennessee Star, is a plaintiff in state and federal lawsuits demanding the release of the documents. The litigation is slowly moving through the courts.
I spoke with Ben Cunningham of @NashvilleTea this morning about @TheTNStar reporting on latest developments in the leaked Covenant Killer documents released by @scrowder on Monday: https://t.co/79ssLhXFaC
— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) November 8, 2023
Sources in the Tennessee General Assembly who were allowed to view the Covenant Killer Manifesto by the Metro Nashville Police Department have confirmed to The Tennessee Star that the pages are indeed part of the documents obtained by MNPD during its investigation and were authentically written by Hale.
Critics of the manifesto’s release have hammered Crowder for publishing the images of the pages, which show Hale, who was white, to hold a seething hatred for white people.
“Wanna kill all you little crackers,” Hale wrote in one of the entries. The killer also took aim at affluent children “with their white privlages [sic]” and wrote out a detailed plan of action for the day of the mass murders — Death Day, as Hale called it.
Law enforcement officials refused to speak to the contents of the pages, instead quickly launching an investigation into the leaked documents. It was swift.
MNPD confirmed on Wednesday that seven of its officers have been placed on administrative assignment following the leak.
“The powers that be are more concerned about finding the leaker than they are about the contents of Audrey Hale’s anti-white manifesto,” Crowder wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
BREAKING: 7 Nashville officers were just placed on admin leave in connection with the release of the #NashvilleManifesto.
The powers that be are more concerned about finding the leaker than they are about the contents of Audrey Hale’s anti-white manifesto.
Interesting.
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) November 8, 2023
Fisher said she’s not surprised the department went after the leakers, but the release of the records remains imperative for many reasons — not the least is transparency.
“At some point we do need to have public officials truly stand up for transparency because right now those files are being held hostage by Metro Nashville,” the public records expert said.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
