She Denied Mel Gibson a Gun—Then Trump’s DOJ Fired Her

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The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

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4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

When Liz Oyer was appointed US pardon attorney in 2022 by President Joe Biden, she’d landed her dream job. As a longtime public defender, Oyer was now in a position to advise the president on the backlog of thousands of individuals seeking presidential clemency. But earlier this year, her dream job ended abruptly.

In March, Oyer was asked to make a recommendation to Attorney General Pam Bondi to reinstate actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights, which were rescinded after a domestic violence conviction in 2011. Oyer reviewed the case and refused. Within hours, she says she was terminated.

Last month, Oyer testified about her firing in front of Congress. She not only accused the Department of Justice of “ongoing corruption” and abuses of power, but she also said the administration tried to send armed US marshals to her home carrying a letter warning her against testifying. Oyer says it felt like “an attempt to display the power of the Department of Justice” and “make me afraid of telling the truth about the circumstances leading up to my termination.”

In a statement, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called Oyer’s allegations about her firing erroneous and said her decision to voice those accusations is “in direct violation of her ethical duties as an attorney and is a shameful distraction from our critical mission to prosecute violent crime, enforce our nation’s immigration laws, and make America safe again.”

On this week’s episode of More To The Story, Oyer sits down with host Al Letson to discuss the details of her firing, the role of the US pardon attorney, and how an advocate and defender of January 6 insurrectionists took her place inside the Justice Department.

Read: A Whistleblower Says Trump Sent the US Marshals to Try to “Intimidate” Her (Mother Jones)
Listen: All the President’s Pardons (Reveal)
Listen: How Trump’s January 6 Pardons Hijacked History (More To The Story)
Watch: Congressional Democrats Hold Meeting on the Trump Administration Agenda (C-SPAN)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Someone from the Department of Justice called me to give me a heads up that there were two armed special deputy U.S. Marshals on their way to my home to deliver me a letter warning me against testifying before members of Congress.
0:19.2	Coming up on more to the story,
0:21.2	former U.S. pardon attorney Liz Oyer
0:23.6	talks about feeling threatened by the Trump administration
0:26.6	after she was asked to testify on Capitol Hill
0:29.6	about losing her job.
0:31.6	She says she was fired for refusing to restore gun rights
0:34.7	to actor Mel Gibson.
0:36.4	Don't go anywhere.
0:41.7	Music refusing to restore gun rights to actor Mel Gibson. Don't go anywhere. The election has come and gone. Now we're in a new era. It can be easy to get discouraged,
0:48.3	frustrated, but you can't afford not to pay attention. You need trustworthy independent
0:53.2	journalism to cut through the noise
0:54.5	and hold power to account. I'm Mary Harris, host of What Next from Slate.com. We are a daily
1:00.8	news podcast with a kind of transparent, smart, yet tongue-in-cheek analysis you can only
1:05.9	find at Slate. Follow and listen to What Next, wherever you get your podcasts. This is more to the story.
1:23.0	Back in January, as President Biden was leaving the Oval Office and President Trump was
1:29.1	returning, the two men used the presidential pardon in sweeping historic ways.
1:35.1	Biden preemptively pardoned individuals he believed could face retribution from an incoming
1:40.4	Trump administration. Trump granted clemency to more than 1,500 people convicted of crimes related to the
1:47.9	January 6th insurrection.
1:50.5	But in the shadows, sits a long backlog of thousands of other Americans also seeking clemency.
1:57.6	For more than a century, the United States pardon attorney has advised presidents
	...

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