The member of Nashville law enforcement who reportedly captured photographs of the manifesto written by Covenant Killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale was not among the seven Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers placed on “administrative assignment” by the department, conservative commentator Steven Crowder confirmed on Thursday. Crowder released three photographs showing pages from the manifesto on Monday.
In a clip from his podcast posted to social media, Crowder said MNPD “messed up” by apparently identifying the wrong officers. He clarified the source “is not one of the seven” put on administrative assignment, and said any reporting to the contrary was designed “to intimidate whistleblowers into silence.”
“Someone let [MNPD] know they messed up,” wrote Crowder in his Wednesday post on X, formerly Twitter.
UPDATE: The whistleblower that leaked the #NashvilleManifesto is completely safe.
Someone let @MNPDNashville know they messed up. pic.twitter.com/OqrRwR48ri
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) November 9, 2023
In another X post on Thursday, Crowder reiterated that his source was not among the officers who were placed on administrative assignment, and insisted that he did not pay to obtain the manifesto.
MNPD confirmed it took action regarding seven officers in relation to the manifesto release on Wednesday, with spokesman Don Aaron telling local media the officers “are on administrative assignment to protect the integrity of the active, progressing investigation.” He stressed that the action is “absolutely not-punitive” and said the officers retain full police powers while on administrative assignment.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell ordered the investigation regarding the release just hours after Crowder made the manifesto pages public, and Police Chief John Drake pledged to identify the source of the “unauthorized release” on Monday night.
Crowder previously stated that two sources were involved in providing the photographs to his team. According to the conservative comedian and commentator, the first source received the photos from a member of law enforcement two days after Hale committed the shooting. Crowder claimed his second source was a member of law enforcement and described the source as an active detective associated with Nashville police who was at the scene of Hale’s crime.
Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star, is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and MNPD to compel the release of the manifesto, and on Tuesday, filed a motion seeking to compel the FBI to immediately confirm the authenticity of the photographs. Should the FBI confirm the photograph, the motion asks the court to compel the FBI to explain why, in light of the pages’ release, the full manifesto could not have been provided to the public in a redacted form.
The manifesto written by Hale, who reportedly identified as a transgender male prior to her death, included racially charged language directed at children and what seems to be evidence of planning for the deadly attack that claimed the lives of six, including three children, at The Covenant School in March.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Steven Crowder” by Steven Crowder.
