Former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper sued the Pentagon over a ban on the publication of part of his memoirs, which deals with his work in the administration of President Donald Trump. This was reported on November 28 by the newspaper New York Times .
Esper intends to release the book "The Sacred Oath" in May 2022, which he called "the complete and unvarnished history of our nation."
"A significant fragment of the text is withdrawn from the publication <...> under the pretext of secrecy. The withdrawn text is necessary for the presentation of important stories touched upon in the manuscript," Esper's lawsuit notes.
The former head of the Pentagon accused the Joe Biden administration of infringing on its constitutional rights, which are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.
Esper himself considers going to court the only way to "fully convey his story to the American people."
Donald Trump dismissed Mark Esper from the post of US Secretary of Defense on November 9, 2020 after the preliminary results of voting in the presidential election showed the victory of Democrat Biden. Esper has held this position since July 2018.
Esper is a career soldier, graduated from the military Academy at West Point, later studied at Harvard and George Washington University. He participated in the first Gulf War in 1990-1991. In total, he gave 10 years to military service and spent even more time in the ranks of the National Guard and the reserve of the armed forces.
Later, Esper became involved in politics and business — he worked at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, was an assistant to Senator Fred Thompson, who ran for president, and worked for some time at the American Chamber of Commerce.