Fired journalists slap Hegseth with damning lawsuit over report he tried to bury

Three Stars and Stripes journalists facing termination sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Pentagon officials Thursday, accusing them of attempting to fire workers who defended the military outlet’s editorial independence.

Publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte filed the 45-page civil lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to block their terminations, Washington correspondent Scott MacFarlane reported on X.

“Defendants are attempting to fire Plaintiffs for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press's freedom to cover military operations, its need to reach all servicepersons, and in retaliation for their publication of a news report on deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during its extended tour of duty in the Mid-East (sic),” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs also blame the imminent firings as retaliation for the newspaper’s opposition to “an ideological purity test for reporters.”

According to the lawsuit, applicants for jobs at Stars and Stripes were asked what they would do to support President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“These actions were undertaken to limit speech on disfavored topics and punish speech critical of DoD and the Trump Administration,” the journalists say in their Aug. 27 complaint.

Slavin and Korte received proposed termination notices accusing them of insubordination after participating in a CBS News interview about the Pentagon’s growing control over the publication.

Lederer received a similar notice after refusing an order to fire them, according to the lawsuit.

The three journalists allege Hegseth, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and other top Trump administration officials violated their First Amendment rights by punishing them for expressing personal opinions as private citizens.