(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the latest development in the effort to make trangender Nashville mass shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto public, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger has ordered the FBI to provide her with a copy of document to review whether it should be released.
Judge Trauger’s March 14 order was in response to the FBI’s attempt to dismiss a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by local media to obtain the manifesto. The FBI has argued that it needs to keep the manifesto secret due to ongoing investigations, including into whether there were others involved in helping Hale prep for the shooting.
Judge Trauger also ordered the lawsuit to be paused while she reviews the manifesto for its potential release. She did not indicate when she’ll make a decision on whether to release the document.
The first three pages the purported manifesto were leaked to conservative broadcaster Steven Crowder last November. The Nashville Police Department reportedly suspended seven detectives over the leak.
The portion of the manifesto that was leaked purportedly revealed Hale had been planning the school shooting for years, and that she deliberately targeted “white privileged” “cr*****s” and “f****ts.”
“Can’t believe I’m doing this but I’m ready… I hope my victims aren’t,” Hale wrote. “My only fear is if anything goes wrong. I’ll do my best to prevent any of the sort. God let my wrath take over my anxiety. It might be 10 minutes tops. It might be 3-7. It’s gonna go quick. I hope I have a high death count. Ready to die.”
Hale, a 28-year-old woman who was identifying as a man at the time of the mass shooting, gunned down three Christian children and three adults in March before being killed by law enforcement. In the subsequent investigation, officials discovered the manifesto in Hale’s apartment.
Public interest and concern over what drove the trans mass shooter’s rage has led to intensified calls for the release of the manifesto, which reportedly reveals in chilling details what Hale had planned.
“What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so, so detailed at the level of what she had planned,” Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston previously told the New York Post. “That document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
