Look - this is really easy to settle.
Send a polite letter to NASA saying that you want to launch your own spacecraft which will go into a high orbit and ask for the necessary permissions.
If they have nothing to hide, then they'll give you their blessing.
If they bog you down with complicated paperwork and keep delaying you, and you suddenly start getting a lot of attention from the local authorities, then you know there's something else going on, and the FE conspiracy is the likeliest explanation.
All this will cost is the time of writing a letter and a stamp, so why not try it?
LOL! What makes you think that paperwork, regulations, international treaties, etc wouldn't be a hassle on RE?
Why would they care? A vertical launch is going to interfere with air traffic a lot less than flying from St. Louis to Chicago. The FAA can easily let pilots know to avoid the area while you're launching your spacecraft.
On the other hand, maybe they WANT you to believe that it's very complicated, thus dissuading you from the attempt.
I notice that the FAA makes it easy to do "suborbital" launches, but has a whole different procedure for high orbit launches. Wouldn't logic dictate that the paperwork is about the same?