The Department of Justice smothered plans to institute a blanket ban on convicted domestic abuse offenders regaining their right to own guns, with Mel Gibson specifically in mind, according to a federal attorney who was fired last year.
In a complaint to the office of the U.S. Pardon Attorney’s inspector general obtained by The Daily Beast’s newsletter offshoot, PunchUp, attorney Elizabeth Oyer alleges she was explicitly told that her proposal to exclude all domestic violence convicts from a gun rights restoration program was a non-starter because of Gibson’s criminal record and personal relationship with President Donald Trump.
Oyer is currently suing the DOJ and Attorney General Todd Blanche, claiming she was fired in March 2025 after she refused orders to add the “Lethal Weapon” actor to a list of people extensively vetted for official recommendations to have their right to own firearms reinstated.
But in Oyer’s complaint reviewed by PunchUp, she maintains Gibson was part of conversations about any domestic violence offenders being eligible for the separate relief program as far back as February 2025, when it was first being developed.
According to the documents, Associate Deputy Attorney General Paul Perkins told her “domestic violence offenders could not be excluded” fully because “it was necessary to grant relief to Mel Gibson,” with another senior DOJ official citing Gibson’s “personal relationship” with the president.
Gibson, who Trump named an ambassador to Hollywood last year, relinquished his right to own firearms after pleading no contest to misdemeanor battery in March 2011 over a domestic dispute with his former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva.
One month after Oyer’s ouster, ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi approved a decision to restore the ”Passion of the Christ” filmmaker’s right to own guns.