In early 2025, officials in the Justice Department’s deputy attorney general’s office asked Elizabeth Oyer, the department’s career pardon attorney, to add actor Mel Gibson to a list of individuals whose gun rights would be restored. Gibson is a vocal supporter of President Trump who lost his right to own firearms after pleading no contest to a 2011 domestic violence misdemeanor for battering his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Oyer refused. She said Gibson had not undergone the reviews applied to other candidates for gun rights restoration and that she was not willing to rubber-stamp what she described as a political favor for a friend of the president. On March 7, 2025, the DOJ fired her. Todd Blanche, then serving as deputy attorney general and now acting attorney general, signed the termination memo. The DOJ did not give her a reason. Weeks later, Attorney General Pam Bondi approved the restoration of Gibson’s gun rights, along with nine other individuals. When Oyer was called to testify before congressional Democrats in April 2025, officials in the deputy attorney general’s office dispatched armed U.S. Marshals to her home to deliver a written warning against her testimony. She testified anyway. On July 16, 2026, Democrats called Oyer as their witness at Blanche’s Senate confirmation hearing for attorney general. She testified that Blanche made provably false statements to the Senate under oath about how and why she was fired, that the Justice Department has been turned into Trump’s personal law firm, and that more than a quarter of DOJ attorneys have left because of what she called a culture of fear.
What the Pardon Attorney Does
The U.S. Pardon Attorney is a career position at the Department of Justice responsible for reviewing and processing applications for presidential clemency, which includes pardons, commutations of sentence, remissions of fine, and reprieves. The office evaluates applications against established criteria and makes recommendations to the president through the deputy attorney general. The position is a career role, not a political appointment, meaning the person holding it is not expected to change with administrations and is supposed to operate independently of partisan considerations. The office also processes applications to have civil rights restored, including in some cases the right to own or possess firearms, which is automatically revoked under federal law upon certain criminal convictions. Restoration of gun rights requires a formal process that typically involves assessing whether the individual poses a public safety risk. Oyer served as U.S. Pardon Attorney from April 2022 until March 2025.
The Gibson Request
Mel Gibson was convicted in 2011 of a domestic violence misdemeanor in Los Angeles County for battering Oksana Grigorieva, a former girlfriend and the mother of one of his children. The conviction resulted in the automatic revocation of his federal right to own or possess firearms under the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, a federal law that prohibits anyone convicted of a qualifying domestic violence offense from possessing guns regardless of the classification of the offense. Gibson publicly endorsed and campaigned for Trump in 2024. In early 2025, officials in the DOJ’s deputy attorney general’s office contacted Oyer’s office and asked that Gibson be added to a list of individuals whose gun rights would be recommended for restoration. Oyer said Gibson had not gone through the standard review process applied to other applicants, including assessments of whether the individual poses an ongoing public safety concern. She declined to add his name. She later described the request as an attempt to rubber-stamp a political favor for a friend of the president. The DOJ fired her on March 7, 2025. Blanche signed the termination memo.
After the Firing: Gibson’s Rights Restored, Marshals at Her Door
On approximately April 3, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi approved the restoration of Mel Gibson’s gun rights, along with nine other individuals. The approval came roughly a month after the career official who had refused to process it without a standard review was fired. When congressional Democrats requested that Oyer testify about her termination in April 2025, officials in the deputy attorney general’s office sent armed U.S. Marshals to her home to deliver a letter warning her against testifying. The use of armed federal law enforcement officers to deliver a deterrence letter to a former DOJ employee before congressional testimony drew condemnation from legal observers and civil liberties groups. Oyer testified before congressional Democrats in April 2025. She subsequently filed a lawsuit challenging her termination, arguing it was retaliatory and improper. Her case was pending as of the date of Blanche’s confirmation hearing.
What She Said at the Blanche Hearing
On July 16, 2026, Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats called Oyer as their witness on Day 2 of Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing for attorney general. In her testimony, Oyer said Blanche had made provably false statements to the Senate under oath regarding the circumstances of her firing. She accused Blanche of using the Justice Department as Trump’s personal law firm and said his willingness to lie under oath during the confirmation process was evidence of a much larger problem within the department. She testified that more than a quarter of DOJ attorneys had left the department during the period Blanche had served as acting attorney general, which she attributed to a culture of fear he helped create. She said she felt it was her obligation to come forward and describe what she called the reckless and unethical use of department resources to accomplish political objectives, including doing favors for loyalists and friends of the president. Republican senators on the committee questioned Oyer about clemency decisions she had recommended during the Biden administration, including cases involving individuals on death row. She maintained that her recommendations in those cases followed the department’s established criteria and were professionally defensible, in contrast to the Gibson request, which she said bypassed the process entirely.
What Else Came Out of the Blanche Hearing
The Blanche confirmation hearing produced several other significant disclosures. Blanche told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the $1.776 billion DOJ anti-weaponization fund, which had been established as part of a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns, is dead and that no money would be paid out. A portion of that settlement, however, remains in effect: a provision that broadly shields the president, his adult sons, and their businesses from IRS audits of past tax returns. That protection was not declared dead. Blanche also acknowledged during the hearing that mistakes were made in the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein client files, specifically that the documents released to the public had not been adequately reviewed to redact the personal information of Epstein’s victims before release. He apologized to the survivors. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican whose vote would be needed for Blanche’s confirmation to advance in committee, said Blanche must agree to meet personally with Epstein survivors before receiving his support. Blanche declined to commit to personal meetings, saying survivors could meet with a member of his staff and that he could not meet with them directly because they are represented by legal counsel. Blanche’s confirmation is not assured as of the date of this article’s publication.