Journalist threatened with jail over publishing trans shooter Audrey Hale’s deranged journal writings
A journalist from the Tennessee Star is summoned to court and faces jail time for publishing the diary entries of transgender shooter Audrey Hale, raising concerns about press freedom.
The article revealed that Hale, who fatally shot six people at Covenant Elementary school in March 2023, wrote weeks before her horrific act about her “imaginary penis” and how she would “kill” to get puberty blockers.
For more than a year, Nashville Chancellor I’Ashea Myles has been leading a public records case in which prosecutors are suing for the right to release documents related to the shooting. Families of the victims are on the exact other side, trying to bury the documents and keep them out of the public eye.
But since the case is still ongoing, Myles claims the Tennessee Star may have published “certain alleged documents and information” that should have been kept under wraps.
At Myle’s request, Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy will appear in court Monday to explain why his news station 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 has ordered Leahy to appear in court over the Star’s reporting of Audrey Hale’s diary entries
Leahy, who is also CEO of Star News Digital Media, publisher of the Tennessee Star, maintains that his outlet has done nothing wrong in the course of its reporting.
The Star has claimed a story from June 5 did not actually publish any of the leaked images of her diary entries, but only excerpts of them, it was reported the associated press.
“This could raise First Amendment issues,” said Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.
Jeff Clark, a former U.S. attorney, also sided with Leahy, saying he was merely doing a journalist’s job and getting crucial information about the shooting.
Leahy ‘is in danger in the Tennessee courts as she tries to get the Covenant Killer Audrey Hale’s ‘manifesto’ out. And probably other information about her,” Clark wrote on X.
“The American people deserve to know the details of how Hale was radicalized by the trans agenda. And the victims’ families in particular deserve to hear that information.’
Hale, 28, was a transgender artist, who identified as a man named Aiden, who forced her way into a Tennessee elementary school in March 2023, killing three adults and three nine-year-olds before responding officers killed her.
Audrey Hale, pictured prior to her transition to ‘Aiden’, wrote extensively about her mentality and detailed plans to cause terror in a manifesto, parts of which have been leaked to social media and various news outlets
Police shot Hale during her “carefully planned” attack, killing three children and three adults
Officers found her writings in the car she drove to elementary school, and the Star reported “nearly four dozen images of notebooks written by Hale,” from a source familiar with the investigation.
Hale wrote about 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 her entries was “My Imaginary Penis,” which included a crude drawing, according to the Tennessee Star.
‘My penis exists in my head. I swear to God I am a man,” Hale wrote in the newspaper.
She then wrote about her desire to have a penis so she could have sex with a woman, in her assumed identity as Aiden.
She wrote about how using that name on an application for a job led to problems with the company’s background check.
Hale also said that being raised as a girl was “torture.”
She was afraid that classmates in high school would call her “dyke or f*****,” she wrote.
That all changed when she learned about transgenderism in her early twenties.
“I have finally found the answer: that changing gender is possible,” Hale wrote.
Hale wrote about 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.
After the Star’s reporting in June, Nashville’s Metropolitan 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 and hand-drawn maps found in her car would eventually be made public.
Despite the leaks, both city police and the FBI say the material should not be released because the information could harm any potential investigation.
In a statement to The Center SquareLeahy said he plans to defend his rights and those of his outlet to publish relevant information about the shooting.
“Yes, I plan to appear in court on Monday at 11 a.m. with my attorneys, Nick Barry of America First Legal and Daniel Horwitz, a nationally recognized First Amendment attorney here in Nashville,” Leahy told The Center Square.