Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Sues Justice Department Over Alleged Political Firing

The former U.S. pardon attorney has sued the Justice Department, alleging she was wrongly fired last year in the face of pressure from the Trump administration after she refused to recommend that actor Mel Gibson have his gun rights reinstated.

“This case is about much more than what happened to me,” Liz Oyer, who served as pardon attorney between 2022 and March 2025, said in a Thursday statement. “All Americans rely on nonpartisan civil servants to keep them safe and to uphold the law without fear or favor. I was fired because I refused to put politics ahead of my duty to the American people.”

Oyer’s suit alleges the Trump administration violated both her constitutional rights and federal law protecting civil servants by terminating her last March without notice or a chance to be heard.

The complaint, filed in Washington, D.C., federal court, claims that the staff of then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asked her to add Gibson’s name to a list of individuals who would be recommended to get their gun rights restored.

Oyer says she refused, noting Gibson had not been thoroughly vetted and had previously pleaded no contest in 2011 to a charge of battering his former girlfriend.

A Blanche staffer then allegedly called Oyer, speaking in a “bullying tone and suggested to Ms. Oyer that she would be wise to make the recommendation,” according to the lawsuit. President Trump named Gibson a Hollywood ambassador in January of 2025.

In a March 7 memo to the attorney general’s office, Oyer again did not recommend that Gibson have his firearm rights restored, and she was terminated the same day.

Oyer then challenged the firing before the Merit Systems Protection Board, a panel designed to review claims from government workers, but said in her suit the petition has yet to receive “any substantive review” and is stuck in “prolonged limbo.”

Asked for comment, the Justice Department pointed to testimony this summer from Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearings.

“I had known nothing about Mel Gibson or that letter when I fired her, nothing,” Blanche testified.

The DOJ, in a statement to The Independent, also criticized the “killers whose death sentences she recommended be commuted.”

Republican lawmakers have criticized Oyer for recommending that 40 death sentences get converted to life sentences without parole during the Biden administration.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

Since her firing, Oyer has become a vocal critic of the Trump administration.

In July, she testified against Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general, claiming he had “laid waste to the Department’s most valuable assets: its credibility and its talented workforce.”

Last year, she alleged the Trump administration was abusing the pardon power to give relief to individuals convicted of corruption.