Ah, well, nevertheless.
You remember Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the state's top vaccine official who was fired in July as the Tennessee Department of Health faced pressure from state Republicans over its outreach to teens. Immediately following her ouster, she went on a media blitz accusing the governor and state health officials of tossing her overboard to calm the political storm. One of the stranger details of the whole affair was her claim that someone had sent her a dog muzzle in the mail, purchased from Amazon but with no letter or information identifying the sender. The muzzle was real; she even shared pictures of it with reporters. But now, a state agency says it was what you might call a false flag.
The scoop came this afternoon by way of the new Nashville-based Axios team of Nate Rau and Adam Tamburin. After an investigation into the mystery of the mailed muzzle, the duo reports, the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security concluded that Fiscus bought the muzzle herself. After obtaining a subpoena, the agency traced the purchase back to a credit card in Fiscus' name.
Fiscus denies it in a tweet.
"Regarding the muzzle: I ASKED Homeland Security to investigate the origin. Just provided a redacted HS report by Axios Nashville. Report says a second account was made under my name from a phone in WA? Waiting on unredacted report. Hold tight. No, I didn't send it to myself."
It's not the first time Fiscus has come out trying to refute less-than-flattering information from the state. After her firing in July, the state health department released records showing conduct issues leading to her firing. Fiscus said it was a smear campaign and released records that the department had left out, including glowing performance reviews.
If she did in fact send the muzzle to herself, she was truly committed to the bit. When I interviewed her in July, she only mentioned the muzzle after a question about whether she'd received any threats or angry messages. She also doubted anyone would ever find out who the muzzle had come from.
"I sent it to Homeland Security," she told me, "and Amazon won't release the sender of that muzzle without a subpoena, which we won't be able to get."
Update (7:45 p.m.): Fiscus tweets again, noting that Axios has backed away fro their original headline. Initially, the headline read: "State investigation finds fired Tennessee vaccine official mailed dog muzzle to self." It now reads: "Probe finds evidence fired Tennessee vaccine official bought dog muzzle sent to her."
Fiscus says the report "only concluded my credit card was charged with the incorrect billing address — my state work office — to an Amazon account I didn't know existed."
In a second tweet, she says: "That account was apparently accessed from the State of Washington, where I had never been, by a cell phone using a carrier I have never used. I have asked the state for the full unredacted report and am awaiting a response."
