Mel Gibson (L) and Elizabeth G. Oyer (R). Photo:

Amanda Edwards/Getty; Department of Justice

A pardon attorney for the Justice Department was fired last week, and she suspects it had something to do with Mel Gibson.

Elizabeth G. Oyer told The New York Times that she and several colleagues were fired from their federal post on Friday, March 7. Oyer’s termination came after a dispute over whether to reinstate Gibson’s right to own a gun, which was ᵴtriƥped when he was convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence in 2011.

Two weeks prior, Oyer was added to a group of federal employees working to restore gun rights to certain individuals convicted of crimes. It felt like an odd request, Oyer mused, as the Justice Department’s authority to restore gun ownership rights to specific individuals has rarely been used in the past.

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Nevertheless, Oyer’s group came up with a list of 95 candidates, which was whittled down to nine by the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Oyer was asked to submit a draft memo recommending that gun rights be restored to those nine — plus one more.

“They sent it back to me saying, ‘We would like you to add Mel Gibson to this memo,’ ” she claimed.

Gibson’s lawyer petitioned Justice Department officials for the restoration of his gun rights in January, just after President Donald Trump named the Braveheart star — along with fellow conservative celebrities Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone — one of his “special ambassadors” to Hollywood.

“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 posted to TruthSocial ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration. “It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”

Mel Gibson ‘Surprised’ by Trump Naming Him Hollywood ‘Ambassador’: ‘I Got the Tweet at the Same Time as All of You’Mel Gibson (L) and Donald Trump (R).

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty; Joe Raedle/Getty

Despite the president’s support — which reportedly came as a surprise to Gibson — Oyer pushed back on restoring the actor and director’s gun rights. Given the lack of time to vet the actor, and the nature of his crime, the attorney said that returning his gun rights “is a serious matter that, in my view, is not something that I could recommend lightly.”

“There are real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms,” Oyer told the Times. “This isn’t political — this is a safety issue.”

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Gibson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge in March 2011, following a January 2010 altercation with then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Grigorieva alleged that the actor verbally berated her and hit her and their daughter, Lucia. She later released audio recordings which she said were evidence of Gibson’s verbal abuse.

Oksana Grigorieva and Mel Gibson at a screening of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ at the Grauman’s Mann Chinese Theater on April 28, 2009.

Jeff Vespa/WireImage

The Mad Max star claimed that the tapes were edited, though he did eventually admit to hitting Grigorieva. However, he claimed it was only to stop her from hurting their daughter.

“You have to put it all in the proper context of being in an irrationally, heated discussion at the height of a breakdown, trying to get out of a really unhealthy relationship,” he said in an April 2011 interview with Deadline. “It’s one terribly awful moment in time, said to one person, in the span of one day and doesn’t represent what I truly believe or how I’ve treated people my entire life.”

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Following Oyer’s initial refusal to restore Gibson’s gun rights, she was called by a senior Justice Department official, who allegedly took a different approach.

“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,” she claimed.

Gibson has ties to at least one other within the Trump administration. On Saturday, March 8, he was spotted attending UFC 313 in Las Vegas, alongside newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel.

FBI Director Kash Patel Wants to Partner with UFC to Get Agents into Shape: ReportsNew FBI director Kash Patel with Mel Gibson at UFC 313 on on Saturday, March 8, 2025.

L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal

The senior DOJ official’s tone, Oyer recognized, seemed to shift from a request to a demand.

“I literally did not sleep a wink that night,” Oyer said, “because 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 remembered telling a colleague about her fear for her professional future as she mulled her decision, allegedly saying, “I can’t believe this, but I really think Mel Gibson is going to be my downfall.”

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The Times and NBC News each got in touch with a Justice Department official who asserted that Oyer’s termination was not related to the Gibson incident.

“The Mel Gibson decision did not play a role in termination decision,” an unnamed official told NBC. “The paperwork was done before the Mel Gibson email went out.”

A separate DOJ official told NBC that, while they are unaware of the specific motive behind Oyer’s termination, the firing fits into “a very concerning set of personnel moves across the federal government and at DOJ.”

“I don’t know how much of what happened to Liz was a failure to toe the line about a specific thing,” that second official said. “But, systematically, the political leadership of this administration is doing their best to take away the institutional guardrails.”

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In Oyer’s statement to NBC about the incident, she said, “Unfortunately, experienced professionals throughout the Department are afraid to voice their opinions because dissent is being punished.”

“Decisions are being made based on relationships and loyalty, not based on facts or expertise or sound analysis, which is very alarming given that what is at stake is our public safety,” she added.