DOJ attorney says she was fired after refusing to restore Mel Gibson’s gun rights

A former Department of Justice employee says that a dispute over Mel Gibson and lethal weapons led to her firing.

Elizabeth G. Oyer, who began working for the DOJ as a pardon attorney in 2022, said in an interview with the New York Times that she was dismissed from her job shortly after she refused to add the Braveheart actor’s name to a list of candidates who may soon have their gun rights restored.

Oyer and representatives for the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment Tuesday. A representative for Gibson declined to comment.

Oyer told the Times that she had drafted a memo recommending nine individuals to have their rights to firearms restored. “They sent it back to me saying, ‘We would like you to add Mel Gibson to this memo,'” she told the paper, claiming that Gibson’s attorney wrote a letter to two senior DOJ officials asking for restored gun rights. 

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Oyer said she told her DOJ superiors that she wouldn’t recommend to restore Gibson’s gun rights, which the Lethal Weapon star lost due to a 2011 domestic violence conviction. (Gibson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge and was ordered to counseling, community service, and three years of probation, plus $570 in fines.) She said she was asked if her position was “flexible,” and responded that it was not. 

The former pardon attorney recalled that the inquiring superior “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 “did not sleep a wink that night,” as she “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.”

After telling a colleague, “I can’t believe this, but I really think Mel Gibson is going to be my downfall,” Oyer said she was summoned out of a meeting to learn that she’d been fired from the DOJ.

Oyer noted that her opposition to Gibson’s restored gun rights came from her belief that “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.”

She added, “This is dangerous. This isn’t political — this is a safety issue.”

President Donald Trump recently named Gibson a “Special Ambassador” or “Special Envoy” to Hollywood, alongside Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. It is not clear what the responsibilities of the position will be.

Gibson told EW at the time that he “got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised” by the announcement. “Nevertheless, I heed the call,” he said. “My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can. Any chance the position comes with an Ambassador’s residence?”