By Kaitlin Housler | Tennessee Star
Tennessee U.S. Representative John Rose (R-TN-06) released a statement this week after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responded to his April 26 letter in regards to the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
Rose’s letter, sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray, requested that the materials seized in relation to the shooting be released without delay. If his request was not able to be fulfilled, Rose also requested a written explanation and timeline as to when the information could be released.
On October 13, more than five months after receiving Rose’s letter, the FBI responded by referring Rose’s requests to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
“We apologize for our delay in responding to your letter…In order to protect the integrity of all investigations, the FBI does not ordinarily comment on the status or existence of any potential investigative matter,” the agency wrote. “The FBI would therefore respectfully refer you to the MNPD, which is the primary entity conducting the review of evidence, as the appropriate entity to determine what can be publicly released.”
Rose slammed the FBI’s delayed response to his letter, calling it “neither comprehensive in nature nor responsive to my questions in any substantive way.”
“The FBI took an unacceptable length of time – five months – to answer my letter relating to the horrible Covenant School shootings, and the nine-sentence reply was neither comprehensive in nature nor responsive to my questions in any substantive way,” Rose said in an emailed statement. “Such a response is insulting to my constituents and completely unhelpful to anyone personally connected with the shooting tragedy and in need of answers.”
“As a Member of Congress, it is my duty to ask our taxpayer-funded federal authorities like the FBI tough questions on behalf of the people of Tennessee whom I represent. But it is also their duty to make a good faith effort to adequately respond to such queries, and in this case, the FBI failed miserably,” Rose added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Background Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.
