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Elizabeth G. Oyer was sacked after she disallowed actor Mel Gibson his gun rights permit. Speaking to The New York Times on March 10, 2025, she said the incident happened after she disagreed with recommending gun rights to Gibson.
Elizabeth G. Oyer worked as a pardon attorney with the Justice Department or DOJ, and was fired on March 7, 2025. In 2011, Mel Gibson’s right to own a handgun was taken away following a domestic abuse conviction. During the interview with the news outlet, she said:
“This is dangerous. This isn’t political. This is a safety issue.”
Elizabeth G. Oyer graduated with honors from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and later earned her law degree from Harvard Law School. At Harvard, she was an Executive Editor for the Harvard Law Review. Oyer was appointed as Pardon Attorney in April 2022.
She worked as a federal public defender for a decade before her appointment. She was the Senior Litigation Counsel in Maryland’s Federal Public Defender’s Office. She was also a partner at Mayer Brown LLP in Washington, D.C., working on civil and criminal litigation at the trial and appellate levels.
As per the news agency, Elizabeth G. Oyer was among several senior officials at the Justice Department who lost their positions that day. The cause for her discharge was reportedly not stated.
According to a Justice Department official, who spoke anonymously to the news agency, the dispute involving Mel Gibson didn't factor in the decision to remove her from the position.
Elizabeth G. Oyer said she lacked sufficient information about Mel Gibson's previous legal affairs
Elizabeth G. Oyer was part of a group that worked on giving back gun rights to individuals with previous criminal convictions. She was informed that the group aimed to create a list of potential candidates to reinstate these rights.
Her office initially identified 95 individuals who seemed suitable for consideration. These individuals came with decades-old convictions and had requested the restriction be lifted.
Advisers at Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General's office, truncated the number to just nine candidates. Elizabeth G. Oyer was then entrusted to prepare a memo for gun rights restoration recommendation to the candidates. She completed the task and submitted it on March 6, 2025.
She later received a response requesting that Mel Gibson be added to the memo. Along with this request, she was provided with a letter from January in which Mel Gibson’s lawyer had appealed for the reinstatement of his gun rights. Elizabeth G. Oyer said:
“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.”
After discussions with officials, she revised her memo stating she lacked detailed knowledge of Mel Gibson’s case and that the final decision rested with the attorney general. On March 7, 2025, two security officers handed her a termination letter from Blanche. They supervised as she packed some of her belongings before escorting her out of the building.
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