Three journalists from Stars and Stripes filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and two other top Pentagon officials, alleging the Trump administration is attempting to fire them illegally for their reporting and public statements defending editorial independence.
Publisher Max Lederer, Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, and reporter Lara Korte received separation notices last week, with insubordination cited as the cause. The lawsuit alleges their terminations are part of coordinated censorship efforts against the military news outlet.
Slavin and Korte gave interviews to CBS News that aired on "CBS Sunday Morning" in July. In that segment, Korte stated she worked for Stars and Stripes, "not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker." The Pentagon has cited that statement as grounds for insubordination.
More than a month after the CBS segment, Stars and Stripes published a report detailing declining mental health and shortages of food and water aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which had been deployed for nine months. A day after that story ran, Hegseth's office ordered Lederer to present separation notices to Slavin and Korte—charging them with insubordination for statements made five and a half weeks earlier.
Lederer refused to deliver the termination notices. He announced his intention to retire at the end of September, citing "fundamental" differences with the Defense Department. The Pentagon fired him before his planned departure date.
The complaint names Hegseth, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and aide Andrew Brey as defendants. The journalists say they face "imminent retaliation and termination in violation of their First Amendment and statutory rights" and seek to block what they call "the blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of these journalists."
Stars and Stripes has emphasized its editorial independence since the Civil War. Roughly half of the paper's $29 million annual budget comes from taxpayers. An average of 1.4 million people see Stars and Stripes each day, and its print editions reach service members in remote overseas locations.
