Three former Stars and Stripes journalists sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and agency spokesperson Sean Parnell on Thursday, claiming the Trump administration pursued “extraordinary censorship efforts” against the news outlet and illegally fired them.
The Pentagon fired three journalists — Publisher Max Lederer, Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte — on Aug. 21 for insubordination. The purge violated their First Amendment rights, the lawsuit alleges.
Korte wrote in a Thursday post on X that “everyone deserves the right to a free and independent press, especially our service members.”