Tennessee’s former top vaccination formal, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, explained to state investigators in July that she received a canine muzzle in the mail, which she considered to be a danger to hold her quiet.

The muzzle, on the other hand, was bought on an Amazon account and with an American Convey card in her name, according to a point out investigation that concluded Monday.

“There is no proof to show the pet dog muzzle was meant to threaten Dr. Fiscus,” said the report, composed by Unique Agent Mario Vigil of the condition Division of Protection and Homeland Stability.

Fiscus, a pediatrician, was the state’s professional medical director of the Vaccine Preventable Condition and Immunization Method. She was fired July 12 in a political firestorm, much less than two weeks after, she explained, she was mailed the muzzle.

She has mentioned her firing was a political selection to placate lawmakers who disapproved of the Health and fitness Department’s outreach to vaccinate youngsters in opposition to Covid-19.

Fiscus could not be straight away arrived at for comment Tuesday. She instructed NBC affiliate WSMV of Nashville that she acknowledges that the muzzle was paid out for using an American Categorical that belongs to her but that she “vehemently denies” getting the muzzle and sending it to herself.

“I have assumed about who could be to blame. It truly is not anything that I have any evidence to show,” Fiscus told WSMV. “I feel there is just a large amount of layers in this article that … I will not comprehend.”

Fiscus tweeted Monday night that “the state’s investigation did NOT conclude I sent the muzzle.”

“In truth, it only concluded my credit rating card was billed with the incorrect billing deal with – my state perform place of work – to an Amazon account I failed to know existed,” she mentioned in the tweet.

“That account was evidently accessed from the Condition of Washington, where by I experienced hardly ever been, by a mobile cellular phone using a carrier I have hardly ever utilized,” she explained in one more tweet. “I have requested the state for the full unredacted report and am awaiting a reaction.”

The report, which was reviewed by NBC News, was partly redacted. At moments, it omitted names or private identifiers, these types of as phone quantities.

An investigation was opened July 7 when a health practitioner with the condition Wellness Division contacted the state’s homeland security director, Greg Mays, and expressed worry that the muzzle was supposed as a threat, according to the report.

Two unique agents fulfilled with Fiscus on July 8. She explained to them that the muzzle was shipped to her business office in an Amazon package July 2 but that she did not open up it right up until July 6, following the holiday getaway weekend, the report mentioned. There was no return tackle or other pinpointing data to point out who sent the “silicon basket doggy muzzle,” the report mentioned.

Fiscus mentioned she first assumed a colleague had sent her the muzzle as a joke. But when the colleague denied owning despatched it, Fiscus instructed investigators that she viewed it as a veiled threat.

“Dr. Fiscus claimed she felt it was a menace and that she must stop talking about vaccinating people,” the report stated. “Owing to her part in the vaccination application and her authoring a memo on Tennessee’s ‘Mature Minor’ Doctrine that she had been singled out for criticism by some men and women in the general public, as effectively as various Tennessee Legislators.”

A unique agent contacted Amazon on July 8 about the muzzle. An Amazon employee advised the agent that without the need of a subpoena, he could do only a cursory bar code look for. The personnel stated that dependent on the look for, “the receiver (Dr. Fiscus) was also the sender, but he could not be particular,” the report mentioned.

An investigator then spoke to Fiscus, who explained to the distinctive agent that she had no information of who despatched the muzzle or why Amazon indicated that she experienced sent it. The report also claimed Fiscus allowed investigators to entry an Amazon account in her title and to watch archived purchases from the account. The account did not listing the muzzle as a obtained product, the report said. Fiscus also explained neither her husband nor her daughter despatched the muzzle, the report stated.

Right after a decide signed off on a subpoena ordering Amazon to offer much more particulars about the account powering the muzzle, investigators acquired that “the account which the muzzle had been procured on was in Dr. Fiscus’ title and experienced been opened in March 2021.”

Investigators also requested a choose to subpoena the service provider of the phone selection mentioned on the Amazon account the muzzle was procured on, the investigation said. Data furnished to the investigation showed that the provider was T-Cell.

While Fiscus mentioned her termination was political, condition paperwork say she was fired mainly because she was a poor chief and supervisor.

Tennessee’s main clinical officer, Dr. Tim Jones, recommended eradicating Fiscus partly for the reason that of issues about her leadership method and simply because of how she dealt with a letter about the vaccination legal rights of minors, which prompted outrage among Republican legislators, state documents clearly show.

The Involved Push contributed.