Max Lederer, whom the Pentagon fired along with two other journalists last month, said their lawsuit challenging the firings is continuing. Max Lederer, the former publisher of Stars and Stripes who was fired by the Trump administration from the military-focused newspaper last month, said on Monday that the paper’s critical coverage of the war in Iran was the “underlying cause” of the firings. Stars and Stripes is partly funded by the Pentagon, and the journalists there are government employees, but it has historically maintained editorial independence. Lederer said this has put the paper at odds with previous administrations, but it never relented. Lederer, along with editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte, were dismissed on Aug. 21. The Pentagon said the cause of the firings was insubordination, stemming from Slavin and Korte’s appearance in an interview on CBS News defending the publication’s independence.