Navy SEAL Who Wrote About Killing Bin Laden Forfeits Book Money

WASHINGTON, DC — Matt Bissonnette, the former Navy SEAL who penned a best-selling book about his participation in the raid that ultimately killed Osama bin Laden, has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the details he included in the book.

According to multiple reports, Bissonnette — who wrote the book "No Easy Day" under the pen name Matt Owen — says he has agreed to pay the U.S. government back about $6.5 million in earnings from the book, which also spawned the Oscar-nominated movie "Zero Dark Thirty" starring Jessica Chastain.

He will also repay the government roughly $1.5 million for his legal fees, which Bissonnette said will leave him $1.5 million in debt when all is said and done, according to The Daily Beast.

The settlement was announced Friday after a nearly four-year battle.

Bissonnette has also issued a formal apology for not submitting the book to the Pentagon for approval before publishing, according to NPR.

The Department of Justice initially accused Bissonnette of violating national security laws when the book was released, though many criticized federal prosecutors since several other authorities and public figures have spoken out in length about the details of the raid that led to the death of one of the world's top terrorists, accused of masterminding multiple attacks including Sept. 11.

According to NPR, Bissonnette had signed documents agreeing to "protect national security secrets" as a career military officer and as a member of the elite SEAL Team Six, which performed the raid that led to bin Laden's death.

Ultimately, the settlement acknowledges that Bissonnette did not violate matters of national security but rather violated contracted nondisclosure agreements with the military, for which he will now pay the government back all proceeds, the Daily Beast explained.

The New York Daily News said one of the points of contention in the years-long legal battle between the Navy SEAL and author and the U.S. Justice Department was a rumor that Bissonnette had kept a photo of bin Laden's corpse, taken on the night of the raid, on the hard drive of his computer.

The photo was allegedly discovered by authorities when Bissonnette turned over his computer hard drive to them as part of the investigation around two years ago.

Charges were also considered against Bissonnette for using his former Navy SEAL status to secure lucrative consulting and speaking gigs with for-profit corporations, for which he netted at least $100,000, NPR reported.

NPR added that the settlement was signed by Bissonnette, as well as officials from the Justice Department and lawyers in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the Pentagon is headquartered.

As part of the settlement decree, no charges have been filed against Bissonnette.

“After the initial accusations of me leaking all that classified stuff…they found nothing,” Bissonnette told The Daily Beast. “They were just upset with me and wanted to get me one way or another. For four years, they looked into every little thing. Now…one signature and it all goes away,” he said.

Photo of Matt Bissonnette courtesy of U.S. military, public domain.