DOD wants former Sec Esper to get parts about Trump from upcoming book, suit says

news7g11/29/2021

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DOD wants former Sec Esper to get parts about Trump from upcoming book, suit says

Esper’s disputes with the agency arose during a pre-publishing review of his manuscript, a typical process government officials must go through to get approval to write about the outbreak. their services, so that state secrets and other protected information are not made public. Starting in October, a DoD employee told Esper he needed to make transactions for his book, according to his lawsuit filed Sunday.

Esper said the requested transactions included quotes from Trump and others, conversations he had had with Trump and his views regarding foreign countries. Trump fired Esper by tweet in early November 2020, days after his defeat in the presidential election. Esper’s increasingly strained relationship with Trump had prompted him to prepare a letter of resignation weeks earlier, in an attempt to carve out a graceful exit in the open. anticipating the event the President decides to fire him, several defense sources previously told CNN.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement, “We are aware of Mr. Esper’s concerns regarding the pre-publishing of his memoir. As with all such assessments, The Department takes seriously its obligation to balance national security with the author’s narrative desires. As this matter is currently under litigation, we will not comment further.”

In the filing Sunday, Esper’s attorneys wrote that making the transactions “would be a grave injustice to these pivotal moments in history that the American people need to know and understand.” “

But after the Defense Department spoke to him about the transactions, stories about the former secretary’s time working for Trump were later leaked to the press, he said, leading Esper to believe the leaks were intended to “reduces the impact” the information in his book will have. if it was first made public in his forthcoming book.

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

Esper has now asked the DC District Court for permission to publish the unclassified information in the book.

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

It is the second time a senior Trump official has come into public disagreement with the agency he works for over information he wants to include in a slated book. Esper’s dispute arose after the end of the Trump administration. An earlier situation, where the Justice Department unsuccessfully sued former National Security Adviser John Bolton over a book he wrote that was heavily critical of Trump and ineligible for publication, took place during when Trump was still President and, according to former officials, was contested as a way to protect Trump politically. The Biden Administration abandoned the government’s pursuit of Bolton in June.

Esper attorney Mark Zaid said in a statement on Sunday: “It is unusual for someone as tall as a cabinet official to not be given the additional opportunity to discuss any of the government’s concerns. government”. “Secretary Esper is the highest-ranking official to have sued to challenge the transactions. Unlike [Bolton], Secretary Esper is upholding and promoting the rule of law. “

Esper broke up with Trump several times during his time as Defense Secretary, including with the former President’s plans to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, but the rift deepened in the summer of 2020. when he said he did not support the use of active-duty troops to quell the large-scale protests across the United States sparked by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police.

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