The death of journalist Michael Hastings is raising new questions after an email he sent hours before last week\u2019s fatal car crash has surfaced showing a possible FBI probe into the reporter.<\/p>\n
\n KTLA News in Los Angeles received an email on Friday that was
\n forwarded to them by a friend of the 33-year-old reporter.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hastings, who wrote for Rolling Stone and the website BuzzFeed,
\n perished after an auto wreck in L.A. early Tuesday last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to an email Hastings sent Monday afternoon to a handful
\n of friends, he believed his colleagues could be visited by
\n Federal Bureau of Investigation officers due to an article he was
\n working on.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHey [redacted}, the Feds are interviewing my \u2018close friends
\n and associates<\/i>,\u2019\u201d Hastings wrote, before recommending to his
\n colleagues that they seek legal advice if approached by
\n investigators.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAlso: I\u2019m onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r]
\n for a bit<\/i>,\u201d he added. \u201cAll the best, and hope to see you
\n all soon<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Hastings was reportedly working on an article about Florida
\n socialite Jill Kelley at the time of his death. Kelley made
\n headlines last year after she became entangled in a high-profile
\n scandal involving then-CIA Director David Petraeus and Gen.
\n George Allen, who then commanded US troops in Afghanistan. A
\n federal probe of suspicious emails sent to Kelley later unearthed
\n an extramarital between Gen. Petraeus and his biographer, Paula
\n Broadwell, which led to the CIA director\u2019s resignation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before taking the helm as CIA director, Petraeus commanded US
\n troops in Afghanistan \u2013 the same role that later went to Gen.
\n Allen. Petraeus had inherited that role from Gen. Stanley
\n McChrystal. On his part, McChystal resigned from that position
\n after a 2010 Hastings-penned article from Afghanistan raised
\n questions about the commander\u2019s remarks about the Obama
\n administration. He was forced to apologize for comments he made
\n in the article that led to his resignation, and Hastings was
\n presented with a Polk journalism award for his report.\n<\/p>\n
\n Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, who met Hastings when the journalist was
\n embedded in Afghanistan in 2008, said he received the email less
\n than a day before the auto accident and told KTLA it sounded
\n \u201cvery panicked<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt alarmed me very much<\/i>,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cI just said it
\n doesn\u2019t seem like him. I don\u2019t know, I just had this gut feeling
\n and it just really bothered me<\/i>,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe was a good friend of mine<\/i>,\u201d Biggs wrote in a tweet
\n sent after Hastings\u2019 death.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the soldier, Biggs was blind-copied on the email
\n sent mid-day Monday, which was addressed to a handful of
\n Hastings\u2019 colleagues. He died around 15 hours after the email was
\n sent.\n<\/p>\n
\n One week after his death, speculations continue to surround
\n Hastings\u2019 death. The other recipients of the email obtained by
\n Higgs have yet to address the correspondence, but the soldier
\n said it\u2019s unlikely because others are worried of what will happen
\n next.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe reason I released the email is because those people were
\n too scared. I’m not<\/i>,\u201d Higgs tweeted over the weekend.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI won’t let a man die in vein [sic] because I’m too scared of
\n what will happen to me. If I sent that email to Mike he wouldn’t
\n rest<\/i>,\u201d Higgs wrote, \u201cHe would fight<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n On the eve of Hastings\u2019 funeral this Monday in Vermont, Higgs
\n said the deceased journalist\u2019s wife thanked him for releasing the
\n email.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe’s vowing to take down whoever did this. She’s a
\n fighter<\/i>,\u201d he wrote.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Los Angeles Police Department says they do not suspect foul
\n play in Hastings\u2019 death, and the FBI said he was not the target
\n of an investigation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Appearing on Fox News on Monday, Ali Gharib, a journalist and
\n friend of Hastings, said \u201cI don\u2019t think he was a reckless a
\n person<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean he might not have been driving excessively
\n fast<\/i>,\u201d added Gharib, who said it wouldn\u2019t be \u201ca wild
\n situation<\/i>\u201d to imagine Hastings driving quickly through Los
\n Angeles late last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking to Yahoo News last week, eyewitness Michael Carter wrote
\n that he was nearby at the time of impact and \u201csaw a giant
\n fireball at the base of one of the palms that line the
\n medians<\/i>\u201d on the road Hastings\u2019 Mercedes was traveling down.
\n \u201cIt was surreal. Even from as far away as I was, I could see
\n how violent an impact it had been<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n