Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO of The Tennessee Star, provided an update after a Nashville court hearing where the judge threatened him with contempt and prison for publishing contents of trans shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto.
The manifesto of Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender male at the time of her horrific attack on March 27, 2023, was leaked again last Friday.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and the publication’s editor-in-chief, Michael Patrick Leahy, are currently plaintiffs in lawsuits seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI to release Hale’s writings, including those referred to as a manifesto.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday that it had obtained nearly four dozen pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the investigation. The March 11, 2023 entry revealed her intense desire to possess a “penis.”
Hale’s diary entry begins with the title “My Imaginary Penis” and includes a crude drawing. “My penis exists in my head. I swear to god I’m a male,” wrote Hale in the diary. She then expressed her desire to have a penis for heterosexual intercourse, according to The Tennessee Star.
Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l’Ashea Myles ordered Michael Patrick Leahy to appear before the court on Monday to determine whether Leahy and The Tennessee Star violated any court orders related to publishing news stories on the shooter’s writings.
The judge appeared to back off…for now.
Michael Patrick Leahy is a free man.
My statement after the Nashville court hearing today. For now, I am a free man and can continue to exercise my First Amendment rights. https://t.co/e7VC27JyzO
— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) June 17, 2024
Michael Patrick Leahy said he is going to continue to exercise his First Amendment rights.
WATCH:
Here’s @michaelpleahy after today’s hearing in Nashville, where a judge had threatened to hold him in contempt.
The judge appears to have backed off the threat, and Leahy says he’ll continue to exercise his First Amendment rights pic.twitter.com/SwLNHgIOlJ
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 17, 2024
