The Defense Department wants former Sec. Esper to take parts about Trump from the upcoming book, says suit :: WRAL.com

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By Katelyn Polantz and Zachary Cohen, CNN

CNN-Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has sued the Department of Defense for not clearing his book manuscript for publication, after the agency told Esper that he had to pick up parts of the book about his working hours under former President Donald Trump.

Esper’s disagreements with the agency occurred during the review period prior to the publication of his manuscript, a typical process that government officials must go through to receive approval when writing about their service, so that the secrets state and other protected information will not be made public. Beginning in October, a DoD staffer told Esper that he needed to make redactions on his book, according to his case filed Sunday.

Esper said the requested redactions cover quotes from Trump and others, his conversations with Trump, and his views in relation to foreign countries. Trump fired Esper via tweet in early November 2020, days after losing the presidential election. Esper’s increasingly strained relationship with Trump prompted him to prepare a letter of resignation a few weeks before, in an attempt to make a good exit in the widely anticipated event that the President decided to remove him, some defense sources previously told CNN.

The New York Times first reported Esper’s lawsuit.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement, “We are aware of Mr. Esper’s concerns about the initial publication of his diary. As with all such reviews, the Department takes seriously its obligation to balance national security with the will. of an author’s narration. Since this matter is now under trial, we will not comment further. “

In Sunday’s filing, Esper’s lawyers wrote that doing the redactions would “be a serious injustice to important moments in history that Americans need to know and understand.”

But after the Department of Defense spoke to him about the redactions, stories about the former secretary’s time working for Trump then leaked to the press, he said, prompting Esper to believe that the Leakage is meant to “page the impact” of information in his book. if it was first published in his upcoming book.

Esper added that he does not believe the DoD’s proposed redactions are classified information, according to his lawsuit. He said he contacted the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, last month and received no response.

Esper has now asked the DC District Court to allow the publication of unspecified information in the book.

A HarperCollins imprint set a publication date in May 2022 for the book, titled “A Sacred Oath,” the lawsuit said.

This is the second time a senior Trump official has had a public standoff at the agency he worked for on information he wanted included in a book scheduled to be published. Esper’s controversy emerged after the Trump administration. A previous situation, in which the Justice Department unsuccessfully sued former National Security Adviser John Bolton for a book he wrote that was extremely critical of Trump and did not receive a full sign-off for publication, played out while President yet Trump and, according to the former official, is controversial as a way to protect Trump politically. The Biden administration dropped the government’s pursuit of Bolton in June.

“It is extremely unusual for someone as tall as a cabinet official to have no additional opportunities to discuss any expressed government concerns,” Esper’s attorney Mark Zaid said in a statement on Sunday. “Secretary Esper is the highest official who has sued to challenge the redactions. Unlike [Bolton], Secretary Esper follows and promotes the rule of law. “

Esper broke up with Trump on various occasions during his time as secretary of defense, including about the former President’s plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but the conflict deepened in the summer of 2020 when he says he does not support the use of active-duty troops to suppress large-scale protests across the United States triggered by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police.

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