The Biden admin is up to its ears in legal troubles. Now there’s another one coming its way.
Because Biden has been dragged into court for this shocking lawsuit.
A conservative law firm is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation in federal court for refusing to release Audrey “Aiden” Hale’s manifesto, who identified as transgender.
On behalf of its clients, The Star News Network, a Nashville-based conservative media outlet that runs a family of national digital newspapers, its editor-in-chief Mike Leahy, and reporter Matt Kittle, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a lawsuit against the FBI on Wednesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the plaintiffs had requested access to Hale’s manifesto on April 20. After the FBI rejected the formal FOIA request for an archive of the manifesto, WILL appealed to the U.S. Department of Justice, which was a prerequisite under federal law. Then, on May 5, the DOJ under the Biden administration upheld the FBI’s April 25 decision while rejecting the expedited administrative-appeal challenge, resulting in the latest legal action brought by WILL.
The FBI said in a denial document sent to a journalist for The Star News Network that the requested information is “located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure.”
The dissemination of the information might “reasonably be expected to interfere with [law] enforcement proceedings,” according to the FBI’s letter.
WILL’s lawsuit said, “Hale is dead and no threat to the public related to the events of March 27 remains.”
“There is no criminal prosecution, investigation, or anything resembling a ‘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.”
🚨 ALERT | New Federal Lawsuit: WILL Takes FBI to Court over Nashville Shooter’s Manifesto
➡️ https://t.co/J3ana56TYG pic.twitter.com/zLiOjZpPuZ
— WILL (@WILawLiberty) May 10, 2023
Lucas Vebber, deputy attorney for WILL, stated in a press release from the Milwaukee-based nonprofit: “The federal government does not get to pick and choose whether they release information that lawfully belongs to the public. Our efforts are critical to holding our federal government accountable and promoting transparency.”
It's been long enough — we are taking @FBI to Court. Biden's highly politicized agency is blocking access to the Nashville Shooter's Manifesto. These records are critical to understand the shooter's motivation & how we can prevent future attacks. See you in court @WILawLiberty pic.twitter.com/wdZmJ5ywZ2
— Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) May 10, 2023
Following the shooting at Covenant School, a media frenzy about the manifesto’s postponed release broke out. More than a month after Hale massacred six innocent people, police are still delaying the release of records that could reveal the killer’s motivation, which investigators have not yet determined.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) reported on May 3 that due to “pending litigation” filed earlier in the week, the police force had been “advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records” pertaining to the Covenant School mass shooting “pending orders or direction of the court.”
After the local gun rights group Tennessee Firearms Association sued the city of Nashville for allegedly breaking the Tennessee Public Records Act by withholding Hale’s manifesto, police made their announcement.
According to reports, Hale’s manifesto will be made public “eventually” when the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) has completed its ongoing inquiry.
According to the MNPD public relations office, the investigation has “progressed to the point” where Hale’s writings are “now being reviewed for public release.” Despite the fact that it is “currently underway,” the process will “take some time.”
The MNPD and the FBI’s BAU in Quantico, Virginia, continue to conduct a “careful review” of the writings retrieved from Hale’s car that was parked in the school’s parking lot and discovered in her bedroom.
Journal notes have revealed that Hale planned the attack over a number of months while “considering the actions of other mass murderers.”
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
