DOJ fired pardon attorney Liz Oyer after she refused to restore Mel Gibson's gun rights

On March 7, 2025, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's office terminated Justice Department Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, delivering a three-sentence memo through two security officers rather than in person. The firing came hours after Oyer declined to recommend restoring the firearm rights of actor Mel Gibson, a Trump ally who lost his gun rights following a 2011 domestic-violence conviction; Oyer said she found the request to add Gibson to a gun-rights restoration list concerning because she did not know enough about his case relative to others her office had reviewed.

Blanche has denied that the Gibson matter played any role in Oyer's termination, calling her public account "false" and accusing her of violating her ethical duties as an attorney by speaking about it. A Justice Department official told NBC News the decision was unrelated to Gibson, while a second official described Oyer's ouster as part of a broader pattern of removing officials seen as potential checks on the administration's use of power. Attorney General Pam Bondi's office restored Gibson's gun rights the following month, one of ten people whose gun rights were reinstated in that round.

Updates

2026-07-16 — Oyer testified to Senate Judiciary Committee against Blanche's nomination [5]

Liz Oyer testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing to become U.S. Attorney General, telling the committee under oath, "I declined to rubber-stamp a political favor for a friend of the president, and it cost me my job," and urging senators to reject his nomination.

2026-09-03 — Oyer sued DOJ over her firing [6, 7]

Liz Oyer filed a federal lawsuit against the Justice Department and Attorney General Todd Blanche, alleging her firing violated her constitutional and statutory due-process rights. The suit says a senior Blanche aide urged her to recommend restoring Gibson's gun rights because of his relationship with President Trump, that she refused, and that DOJ's own legal position — that only the attorney general may exercise removal authority — makes her termination by then-Deputy Attorney General Blanche invalid on the department's own terms. The suit follows an unresolved Merit Systems Protection Board challenge Oyer describes as stuck in "prolonged limbo." DOJ pointed to Blanche's confirmation-hearing testimony that he knew nothing about Gibson when he fired her.