(LifeSiteNews) — A Tennessee man has issued a death threat to a journalist suing to obtain the manifesto of the gender-confused shooter who killed six people in a Nashville Christian elementary school earlier this year.
Michael Alonzo Rouse, 49, reportedly threatened Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO of The Star News Network and its parent company, Star News Digital Media Inc., over Leahy’s efforts to publicize the manifesto of “transgender” killer Audrey Hale via a lawsuit.
“Michael Patrick Leahy … if it were not illegal to beat your a— up … I’d have done it months ago,” Rouse wrote in an email to Leahy, obtained by Just the News. “I have called your show twice because you decided to pound home the transgender Audrey Hale while people who suffered were healing. You dirty potato eating Mick. If I see you on the street … I’m going to end your conservative slant eye a—.”
He continued, “I’m willing to go to prison to end you. You dirty drug addict eyed Irish fool. You either end your talk show or I’ll end your life in real time while you do it. You have no right to the manifesto of Audrey Hale and you just want content by obtaining it.”
“Send the authorities. You’d better if you still want to live, Leahy,” read the final line of the email, according to the news outlet.
Williamson County Sheriff’s Office shared that a misdemeanor summons for harassment was issued for Rouse on July 10 and that an arrest warrant was issued for him the next day for aggravated stalking, which is a felony when the victim is over age 65. Rouse was arrested and charged on July 11.
The sheriff’s office told Just the News that Rouse’s bond was set at $7,500, and that he is to appear in court on September 7.
In May, Star News Digital Media, Inc. filed a lawsuit against the FBI for failing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to release shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto. Leahy and Matthew Kittle are listed as plaintiffs, represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL). The document has been kept hidden from the public since she tragically murdered three children and three adults at The Covenant School on March 27.
Despite properly submitted requests and a follow-up appeal to the agency’s rejection, the news outlet was denied its legal rights to access the manifesto, with the FBI claiming “that releasing the manifesto ‘could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.’”
“Hale is dead and no threat remains to the public related to the events of March 27,” the complaint reads. “There is no criminal prosecution, investigation, or anything resembling an ‘enforcement proceeding.’ It has been long enough, and the public has an urgent right to know why this tragedy happened, how future events may be prevented, and what policies should be in place to address this and other similar tragedies. FBI has no right to retain a monopoly on this information.”
The complaint also outlined several cases in which other news outlets were given manifestos or notes written by mass shooters just days or weeks after various tragedies occurred.
“One could speculate as to why FBI has released so many other manifestos, but not this one. But such speculation is unnecessary for the purposes of this lawsuit. The simple fact is that FBI has not justified its refusal to release this manifesto under FOIA; there is no reasonable chance release would interfere with an ‘enforcement proceeding’ under FOIA’s exception.”
“The release of these records is critical to understanding the mind and actions of a mass murderer and can help form public policy to most effectively protect American citizens,” CEO and editor-in-chief Leahy said regarding the lawsuit. “We believe the public’s right to know is so important that we are willing to challenge the most powerful law enforcement agency in America.”
Laura Ingraham of Fox News shared Friday morning that after reaching out to the Nashville Metro Police Department to ask when the manifesto and other Hale-related documents would be released, they responded that in part “it’s currently caught up in the court system.”
The FBI also told Ingraham that they would not comment on the matter, which Ingraham said “feeds into the public’s lack of trust in these institutions.”
“They hide information that’s inconvenient to some narrative, political or otherwise, and then they flood the marketplace with information when they think it advances a political agenda. At least that’s what it seems,” Ingraham told Leahy on Friday.
Deputy counsel for WILL Lucas Vebber said that “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.”
Although the manifesto remains hidden from the public, MNPD shared some additional information about the shooter and the tragedy in the days after the murder. During a press conference after the incident, police revealed that the gender-confused woman who killed three 9-year-old children and three adults was in legal possession of seven guns. Hale’s parents, with whom the 28-year-old still lived at the time of the shooting, told police that they didn’t want her to have weapons due to an “emotional disorder” for which she was being treated.
The following week, police updated the public once again, sharing the information that while Hale had “acted totally alone” in the shooting, she had also been “planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School.”
After the horrific murders, Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson took to Twitter to point out that Hale is among several mass shooters of recent memory who have identified as “trans” or “non-binary.”
The Colorado Springs shooter identified as non binary.
The Denver shooter identified as trans.
The Aberdeen shooter identified as trans.
The Nashville shooter identified as trans.
One thing is VERY clear: the modern trans movement is radicalizing activists into terrorists.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 27, 2023