A Tennessee Star journalist is being summoned to court and faces prison time for publishing journalistic writings by transgender shooter Audrey Hale, raising concerns about press freedom.
The article revealed that Hale, who shot and killed six people at Covenant Elementary School in March 2023, wrote about his ‘imaginary penis’ and how he would ‘kill’ to get puberty blockers weeks before his horrific act.
For more than a year, Nashville Chancellor I’Ashea Myles has been presiding over a public records case in which plaintiffs are suing for the right to release documents related to the shooting. The victims’ families are on the exact opposite side, trying to bury the documents and keep them out of public view.
But since the case is ongoing, Myles claims the Tennessee Star may have published “certain purported documents and information” that should have remained sealed.
At Myle’s request, Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy will appear in court Monday to explain why his news outlet did not violate the court order.
Michael Patrick Leahy, left, is the CEO of Star News Digital Media and editor-in-chief of the Tennessee Star. Nashville Chancellor I’Ashea Myles ordered Leahy to appear in court because of the Star’s reporting on the writings of the diary of audrey hale
Leahy, who also serves as CEO of Star News Digital Media, publisher of the Tennessee Star, says his outlet has done nothing wrong in the course of its reporting.
The star has stated a story from June 5 He didn’t actually post any of the leaked images of his diary entries, just snippets of them, he reported. The Associated Press.
“This could raise issues with the First Amendment,” said Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.
Jeff Clark, a former federal prosecutor, also sided with Leahy, saying he was just doing a journalist’s job and getting crucial information about the shooting.
Leahy’ is in danger in Tennessee state court for attempting to spread Covenant assassin Audrey Hale’s “manifesto.” And presumably other information about her,” Clark. wrote in X.
‘The American people deserve to know the details of how Hale was radicalized by the trans agenda. And the families of the victims especially deserve to know that information.
Hale, 28, a transgender artist who identified as a man named Aiden, shot into a Tennessee elementary school in March 2023, killing three adults and three nine-year-old children, before officers If they came they would kill her.
Audrey Hale, pictured before her transition to ‘Aiden’, wrote extensively about her mindset and detailed plans to cause terror in a manifesto, parts of which have been leaked to social media and various media outlets.
Hale was shot dead by police during his “carefully planned” attack in which he killed three children and three adults.
Officers found his writings in the car he drove to the elementary school, and the Star reported on “nearly four dozen images of notebook pages written by Hale” provided by a source familiar with the investigation.
Hale wrote about her anger toward her parents, how she hated her conservative Christian upbringing, and how she had suffered because hormone blockers were not available when she was a child.
One of his entries was ‘My Imaginary Penis’ and included a crude drawing, according to the Tennessee Star.
‘My penis exists in my head. “I swear to God I’m a man,” Hale wrote in the newspapers.
He then wrote about his desire to have a penis so he could have sex with a woman, under his supposed identity of Aiden.
She wrote about how using that name on a job application for a delivery position led to problems with the company’s background check.
Hale also said that being raised as a girl was “torture.”
She worried that her high school classmates would call her a ‘dyke or a whore,’ she wrote.
That all changed when she learned about transgenderism in her early 20s.
“I finally found the answer: that changing gender is possible,” Hale wrote.
Hale wrote about her anger toward her parents, how she hated her conservative Christian upbringing, and how she had suffered because hormone blockers were not available when she was a child.
Following the Star’s reporting throughout June, Metro Nashville Police said in a statement that it “is concerned about the alleged leak and we, like others, would like to know where it came from.”
Immediately after the shooting, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale’s manifesto, as well as hand-drawn maps found in his car, would eventually be made public.
Now, despite the leaks, both city police and the FBI say the material should not be released because the information could damage any potential investigation.
In a statement to The central squareLeahy said he plans to defend his and his media’s rights to publish relevant information about the shooting.
“Yes, I intend to appear in court on Monday at 11 a.m., along with my attorneys, Nick Barry of America First Legal and Daniel Horwitz, a nationally recognized First Amendment attorney based here in Nashville,” Leahy told The Center Square on Sunday.
