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The
book, "A Sacred Oath", sheds light on events that occurred
during the second half of Trump's presidency, Esper said.
The Department "arbitrarily" redacted the manuscript after he
submitted it to DoD officials for review, he said in a
statement.
"Significant text is being improperly withheld from publication
...under the guise of classification. The withheld text is
crucial to telling important stories discussed in the
manuscript," Esper's lawsuit, filed in a federal court, said.
Esper served as Trump's defense secretary from June 2019 to
November 2020, when he was fired over a range of differences on
policy issues.
They included Esper's public opposition to Trump's threats to
use active duty military forces to suppress street protests over
racial injustice after police killed George Floyd in
Minneapolis.
The DoD did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for
comment sent during overnight hours.
(Reporting by Vishal Vivek and Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru;
editing by John Stonestreet)
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