Justice Dept. Attorney Says She Was Fired Over Mel Gibson’s Gun Rights
A pardon attorney at the Justice Department claims she was fired after refusing to restore Mel Gibson‘s gun rights.
In a story published on Monday, former U.S. pardon attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer told The New York Times that she was fired on Friday for refusing to recommend Gibson be allowed to carry a handgun again, after the actor and filmmaker lost his rights following a 2011 domestic violence misdemeanor conviction. The Times confirmed the reasons for Oyer’s firing with other sources familiar with the matter.
In an interview with the Times, Oyer laid out the timeline that led to her dismissal from the DOJ, revealing that two weeks ago she was part of a working group tasked with restoring the gun rights of a group of people with convictions. The working group is said to have compiled a list of 95 candidates who were eligible to have their gun rights reinstated. This list was subsequently narrowed down to nine individuals by the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. On Thursday, Oyer followed directives to submit a draft memo advocating for the restoration of gun rights for these nine people.
The Times reports that Blanche’s office then made a request to add Mel Gibson to the memo. Attached to the request was a January letter written by Gibson’s lawyers to two senior Justice Department officials, arguing for the actor’s gun rights to be restored. The letter outlined that Gibson had been tapped by Trump as a “special ambassador” to Hollywood and also cited his successful movie career. The letter from Gibson’s lawyers added that the actor had attempted to purchase a handgun recently but had been denied due to his domestic violence conviction.
In 2011, Gibson pleaded no contest in Los Angeles Superior Court to a misdemeanor charge of battering a former girlfriend.
Oyer tells the Times she found the request to add Gibson concerning as unlike the other cases the working group had looked at, she didn’t know as much about the actor’s case. “Giving guns back to domestic abusers is a serious matter that, in my view, is not something that I could recommend lightly, because there are real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms,” Oyer said.
Oyer sent a memo to her bosses at the Justice Department that she could not recommend that Gibson have his gun rights restored. Hours later, in a phone call, she was then asked by a male superior if her position was “flexible” on the issue and she responded it wasn’t.
“He then 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, adding that the call went from being friendly to bullying. She conceded that she would think about the issue some more. On Friday, Oyer then emailed her bosses that it was ultimately up to the attorney general to make a decision on the matter, but she still stopped short of recommending that Gibson have his gun rights restored.
Later on Friday, Gibson was informed that she was fired. “This is dangerous. This isn’t political — this is a safety issue,” Oyer told the Times.
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