21 hours Ago By Julia Ornedo
A Justice Department official said she was fired after she went against the Trump administration by refusing to recommend the restoration of actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights. Elizabeth Oyer, a former pardon attorney, told The New York Times that she was placed in a working group to restore gun rights to people with convictions about two weeks ago. Gibson, who President Donald Trump appointed as a “special ambassador to Hollywood” in January, lost his gun rights after he was convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor in 2011.
The group reportedly prepared a list of 95 candidates eligible to get their gun rights restored, which the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche then whittled down to nine individuals. On Thursday, Oyer followed instructions to submit a draft memo recommending that those nine people regain their gun rights. “They sent it back to me saying, ‘We would like you to add Mel Gibson to this memo,’” she told The Times.
Attached to the request was a January letter from Gibson’s lawyer to Justice Department officials James McHenry III and Emil Bove III stating that the actor was given a special appointment by Trump and had been refused a gun purchase in recent years due to his conviction. In 2011, Gibson pleaded no contest in Los Angeles Superior Court to a misdemeanor charge of battering a former girlfriend. “This is dangerous.
This isn’t political — this is a safety issue,” Oyer said in an interview with The Times where she described internal discussions. The deliberations were confirmed anonymously to the paper by two other sources. One Justice Department official reportedly said the disagreement over Gibson was not a factor in Oyer’s termination.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Justice Department and Gibson’s representatives for comment. The former pardon attorney said she sent her bosses an email stating that she could not recommend the restoration of Gibson’s gun rights. She later got a call from an official in Blanche’s office who asked her if she had any flexibility in her position and, when she said no, “essentially explained to me that Mel Gibson has a personal relationship with President Trump and that should be sufficient basis for me to make a recommendation and that I would be wise to make the recommendation.
” Oyer said she “literally did not sleep a wink” that night as she tried to find a way to “thread the needle.” “I understood that the position I was in was one that was going to either require me to compromise my strongly held views and ethics or would likely result in me losing my ability to participate in these conversations going forward,” she said. Oyer added that she told a trusted colleague: “I can’t believe this, but I really think Mel Gibson is going to be my downfall.
” On Friday, she penned another draft memo saying that the matter was ultimately the attorney general’s decision. She still did not recommend that Gibson get his gun rights back. Hours later, Oyer’s staff frantically called her to return to her office.
When she got back, she was welcomed by two security officers who handed her the termination letter from Blanche. Oyer announced her termination in a LinkedIn post last week. The Justice Department website states that she was appointed a pardon attorney in April 2022, making her the first former public defender to assume the role.
“I’m sad to share that I was fired today from the job I have poured my heart and soul into for the last three years,” she wrote, attaching a letter from Blanche dated March 7 indicating that her “employment with the Department of Justice is hereby terminated.” Gibson was appointed “special ambassador” to a “troubled” Hollywood along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. “They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” Trump said in a Truth Social post in January.
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