The Justice Department (DOJ) is declining to automatically shut convicted domestic abusers out of a new federal program to restore gun rights because a senior official said relief had to be granted to Mel Gibson, according to a complaint filed by the government’s former top clemency lawyer.
Elizabeth Oyer, the former U.S. pardon attorney, says she pushed for a blanket exclusion barring people with domestic violence convictions from winning back access to firearms while officials were still designing the restoration program for Americans who are legally prohibited from owning guns. She was overruled, she alleges, because of the ties between the 70-year-old “Lethal Weapon” star and President Donald Trump.
Oyer made the claim in a complaint to the department’s inspector general about Associate Deputy Attorney General Paul Perkins. “Ms. Oyer was advised by Mr. Perkins that domestic violence offenders could not be excluded because it was necessary to grant relief to Mel Gibson,” the complaint states. The reason given, according to the document, was Gibson’s personal relationship with the president.
What the Complaint Alleges
Oyer says the question of whether people with domestic violence convictions should be eligible for reinstatement came up at the inception of the project in February 2025. She proposed cutting them out altogether or, failing that, consulting the DOJ Office on Violence Against Women about the dangers involved.
The allegation has taken on new weight because the department has opened the first stage of the federal gun-rights restoration program without the catch-all exclusion Oyer says she urged. Under final rules issued by Attorney General Todd Blanche that have now taken effect, people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence can still apply, although the department says it will generally refuse to restore their rights for 10 years absent extraordinary circumstances.
How Gibson Landed on the List
Gibson lost his federal firearms rights after pleading no contest in 2011 to misdemeanor spousal battery involving his former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi restored the actor’s gun rights in 2025. In January 2025, Trump, 80, named Gibson an “ambassador” to Hollywood alongside fellow actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone.
In the previously reported fight over Gibson’s individual application, Oyer and her staff identified 95 people who had already been extensively vetted through the presidential pardon process as possible candidates for firearms restoration. Department leadership cut that group down to nine. Oyer sent Perkins a memo recommending those candidates on March 6, 2025, and says he responded by instructing her to add Gibson, who had not gone through the same vetting.
Gibson’s attorney, she says, pointed to the actor’s relationship with Trump and his career making famous movies in asking for the rights back. After Oyer refused to recommend him, she alleges, Perkins called to ask whether her position was flexible and conveyed that she would be wise to make the recommendation. The following morning she filed a memo containing information about Gibson but stopped short of recommending him. Hours later, Blanche fired her.
Oyer, who confirms she was fired in March 2025 for refusing to recommend restoring Gibson’s gun rights, is suing the department and Blanche over her firing. Blanche has denied that Gibson had anything to do with the dismissal, telling senators at his confirmation hearing that he knew nothing about the Gibson matter when he removed her.
Advocates Warn of Deadly Risk
Domestic violence campaigners say the policy will cost lives. Tonia Moultry-Pace, interim president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), said that when a male abuser has access to a firearm, the risk that he will shoot and kill a female partner rises by 1,000 percent.
“Removing guns from convicted domestic violence offenders is a lifesaving protection,” Moultry-Pace said, warning that stripping away that safeguard shows disregard for survivors and will put thousands of victims in grave danger.
The complaint places Gibson in the government’s thinking from the very beginning of the program, months before reports that the Justice Department had restored the actor’s gun rights. With the first stage of that program now open and Blanche’s rules in force, the people Oyer wanted excluded can file applications — and her lawsuit over the firing that followed her refusal is still moving through the courts.
