Are Washington censors trying to block from publication “shocking details” of “a White House bent on circumventing the Constitution”?

Mark Esper, who briefly served as Secretary of Defense in the Trump Administration, has sued DOD for attempting to censor, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, due out from William Morrow in May of 2022.

“Esper claims Pentagon officials are using the pre-publication review process to block key portions of his forthcoming memoir,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer. “Attorneys for Esper allege that, ‘significant text… crucial to telling important stories’ is being “improperly withheld from publication…under the guise of classification concerns.”

Catalog copy for the book promises “shocking details” of “a White House bent on circumventing the Constitution for its own benefit,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“The problem Esper complains of is a well-worn tale for many former government employees with book manuscripts,” he says. “It seems clear that government reviewers are not interested in having former government officials say what they know—and that’s a problem.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Velocity of Content” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.