Former defense chief Mark Esper sues Pentagon over memoir redactions

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: CBS News

Washington — Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper is suing the Pentagon over its redactions of a memoir he has written about his time as Secretary of the Army and Secretary of Defense under former President Donald Trump. The former president announced that he was firing Esper in a tweet less than a week after he lost the 2020 election to President Biden.

Esper claims in his lawsuit that he submitted his manuscript, which relates his role during what he describes as "an unprecedented time," to the Department of Defense for review in May. He says he did not receive the redactions from the Pentagon until October 7, which he called in his filing an "unusual" length of time for a review of a memoir by a former defense secretary.

The lawsuit also notes that passages on 60 pages of the manuscript were redacted and claims "no written explanation was offered to justify the deletions." There was no assertion, according to the suit, that the deleted material posed a national security threat or contained classified information.

"The Manuscript does not contain any classified information," the lawsuit claims, arguing that therefore, allowing the redactions to remain would infringe on Esper's constitutional rights.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/former-defense-chief-mark-esper-sues-pentagon-over-memoir-redactions/ar-AARfvAN?li=BBnb7Kz

[peppertree]

1. Don't say 'censorship' - say 'national security'

Best authoritarian idea since 1945.

[royable]

2. Well, this is a refreshing change! Someone from the Drumpf admin who WANTS to talk! n/t

[orleans]

3. are there trumpers

editing this?

maybe they don't want more incriminating shit about trump made public

[DallasNE]

4. This Is Like Burning The Book Before It Is Published

Rather than waiting until after it has been published to burn it.

[intheflow]

5. I, for one, have no problem with this.

As a librarian, I'm against censorship 99.9% of the time. But "censorship" before publication is also called "editing." Who the fuck knows what shit he wrote. He could have spent 50% of the book trashing TFG, and the other 50% glorifying all the human rights abuses under his tenure. Some of those, or something like those things, could lead to national security risks, and Esper has already shown himself to be clueless about what constitutes national security risks by supporting TFG.