Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper sues Defense Department over memoir redactions and "unusual" delay

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.