Attorneys representing Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM) and Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, on Thursday received confirmation from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that the FBI is considering an offer that would see federal agency release the full manifesto written by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man before she killed six at the Christian elementary school she once attended in Nashville on March 27, 2023.
A DOJ official confirmed to an attorney representing SNDM the FBI is considering dropping its opposition to the release of Hale’s writings, which reportedly include about 1,000 handwritten pages that the 28-year-old began writing in middle school.
Last year, after President Donald Trump was reelected to the White House but while President Joe Biden was still serving as a lame duck, SNDM sent an identical settlement offer that was eventually declined by the FBI.
Since that decision was made, former FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned from the agency, which is currently led by Acting Director Brian Driscoll.
The earlier offer was similarly extended when Merrick Garland still served as the U.S. Attorney General, while the position is temporarily held by James McHenry, a longtime advocate of conservative policies at the border.
Should the Trump administration’s FBI and DOJ now agree to release the manifesto in exchange for ending the lawsuit, their decision could conclude nearly two years of litigation at both the state and local level in an effort to obtain the killer’s writings.
The Star filed its lawsuit against the FBI in May 2023, and a judge has been reviewing Hale’s manifesto to determine whether parts are suitable for release since April 2024.
The decision would also come as the agency prepares for the likely confirmation of Kash Patel as its new director. Patel has suggested the FBI should release both Hale’s writings and the Jeffrey Epstein client list.
Last year, The Star obtained Hale’s 2023 journal from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, amid litigation seeking to compel both the FBI and Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to release the full documents.
Revelations from the killer’s journal include her obsession with transgenderism, which included acting out sex acts using stuffed animals, highlights the months she spent planning to attack the Christian elementary school, and shows her apparent obsession with a group of former friends who mostly cut contact with Hale after middle school.
Hale’s full 2023 journal was published by The Star in September 2024.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to pappert.tom@proton.me.
Photo “Covenant Presbyterian School” by Metro Nashville PD.
