FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month fired an FBI agent overseeing the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), which in turn oversees the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) that deployed the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) note advising against releasing ‘vintage tokens’ after lawsuit filed over manifesto left by transgender killer Audrey Hale, who killed six at Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
The first was the firing of former FBI agent Steven Palmer reported By Bloomberg’s Law on Nov. 1, when the outlet alleged that the 27-year-old FBI employee had incurred the director’s ire because of his additional role overseeing the agency’s aviation units.
At the time of Palmer’s firing, Patel had recently made headlines after flying on an FBI plane for personal reasons.
White House policy, potentially casting doubt on whether this is the reason for Palmer’s firing adopted during the Obama administration requires the head of the FBI to fly on government jets and Bloomberg reported that her sources were “amazed” that the director would blame Palmer for the negative headlines.
The website also revealed that Palmer is the third person to lead CIRG to leave his position during Patel’s tenure.
Others include former FBI agent Wes Wheeler, who Bloomberg was reportedly asked to resign as head of CIRG earlier this year, and former senior official Brian Driscoll, who oversaw CIRG’s operations before is fired in August for allegedly trying to protect agents who were involved in the network of Biden-era Republicans who took part in protests in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.
Driscoll held the position for only about five months after Wheeler’s departure when he was fired.
While Wheeler led CIRG through the transition from former President Joe Biden to the Trump administration, it was led by former FBI agent Paul Haertel in May 2023, when the note has been sent by BAU-1 for MNPD under CIRG supervision.
Haertel was promoted lead CIRG in February 2021, and left FBI in May 2024
Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM)which owns and operates Tennessee Starand editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy, defendant Metro Nashville will receive a manifesto in May 2023.
While the lawsuit remains in progressthis was in the same month of 2023 when BAU-1 sent its unsigned note to MNPD Chief John Drake, warning that releasing “legacy tokens” left behind by mass murderers could lead to “unintended consequences,” including the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation.
There was a copy of the note legally obtained By Star in June 2024, when he also received a number of police investigative documents related to the Covenant case and the killer’s last diary, in which Star published in full last year.
The memo “expresses the opinion that responsible authorities must take all possible measures to limit the opportunities of future criminals who contemplate” a mass shooting, and “strongly” discourages “public dissemination of any legacy tokens,” which the FBI defines as any “communication prepared by a criminal to claim credit for an attack and convey the motives behind a shooting.”
After insisting that MNPD not release “legacy tokens,” the memo set a precedent for their destruction, noting that a number of videotapes recovered after the 1999 attack on Columbine High School had been permanently destroyed to prevent future release.
Leahy i SNDM he additionally sued the FBI to force the agency to release the memo, but under Patel’s leadership the matter was settledand the FBI agreed to publish redacted versions of the killer’s writings. About half the killer’s writings have been released so far.
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