Pentagon May Go After Navy SEAL Author

The Pentagon has informed the former Navy SEAL who wrote a book about the Osama bin Laden raid that he might face legal action. The top Defense Department lawyer wrote in a letter transmitted to author Mark Bissonnette that Bissonnette had signed two nondisclosure agreements with the Navy in 2007 that obliged him to "never divulge" classified information. Lawyer Jeh Johnson said that after reviewing a copy of the book, No Easy Day, the Pentagon concluded that the author is in "material breach and violation" of the agreements.

Johnson said the department is considering pursuing against him "all remedies legally available to us." The account by Bissonnette contradicts the White House version of the raid in parts, with the author writing that bin Laden got shot immediately when he peeked his head out of his room. Publisher Dutton has said the book wasn't vetted by government officials before its release. (More Pentagon stories.)