A former U.S. Dept. of Justice Pardon Attorney says she was fired last week from her position for refusing to reinstate Mel Gibson’s gun rights.
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00:00Mel Gibson wants to get his gun rights back, and there's a big fight apparently in the Trump administration over that.
00:07So there is a attorney, a U.S. pardon attorney, her name is Elizabeth Oyer,
00:13and two weeks ago she was put on a group tasked with coming up with a list of names to return their gun rights.
00:21She did not have the name Mel Gibson on her list.
00:25The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said, you know what, it'd be a good idea if you put Mel Gibson on that list.
00:31She didn't, and then she lost her job.
00:35She got canned. So you may remember back in 2011, Mel was convicted of assaulting, battering his then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva,
00:48knocked out a couple of her teeth, and she was convicted of domestic violence, a misdemeanor,
00:56but he had to surrender his gun and his gun rights.
01:01So now, somehow, he was not even on the list that she was looking at, and Todd comes in and says, add him.
01:11Well, and we know that he's a big Trump fan. He was recently named a special ambassador to Hollywood.
01:19On that list was Sylvester Stallone, John Voight, and Mel Gibson.
01:23We know he's a big conservative. He's pushing the recall of Gavin Newsom here.
01:27And clearly there were folks high up in the administration, maybe even the president himself,
01:33who were pushing to get Mel Gibson his gun rights back.
01:36So here's a statement from that fired attorney, Elizabeth Oyer, to the New York Times.
01:42She says this,
01:58It's pretty remarkable. Liz Oyer is a pretty prominent attorney in the Department of Justice,
02:02in charge of handling, of vetting pardons that whatever administration wants to make, wants to have done.
02:10So she was presented with this list, and she went through the list, and not on there was Mel Gibson.
02:14It seems because he was convicted of domestic violence, which she considered, as most attorneys do,
02:20to be a crime that would not be worthy of returning their gun rights to.
02:23But when the Trump administration heard about that, I mean, this idea that it may or may not have come from Trump,
02:29we know the relationship that exists there. He's not been shy about it. Donald Trump hasn't.
02:33And so she was instructed to curry favor with the administration by adding him to the list.
02:38And when she refused at the principle, she was terminated.
02:41And you know, it's so interesting that, you know, we're working on something right now.
02:47You know who this benefits in a weird way? You know what benefits? Biddy.
02:52And I'll tell you why.
02:53Okay. Didn't expect that turn.
02:55I know, but I've been doing some research and thinking about it.
03:00When you look really at both sides now, that you've got Democrats and Republicans saying
03:06the Justice Department is weaponized against particular people.
03:09And sometimes, you know, it works to the benefit of the person,
03:14and sometimes they get prosecuted because they're on the other side.
03:17So both sides have been making that argument.
03:21And I think there is such a distrust of the Justice Department now
03:26that that underlying distrust is going to help any defendant who's being singled out and prosecuted.
03:33Harvey, I don't disagree with you as a general matter,
03:36but in this case, there's really no dispute that Mel Gibson beat the crap out of this woman
03:42and was convicted for it and lost his gun rights as a result.
03:45This just seems to be a singling out.
03:47Well, that's what I'm saying. Sometimes it works against the person.
03:50In this case, when you say weaponized, what I'm suggesting is sometimes you cut him a break,
03:56like Trump cut Eric Adams a break.
03:59You know, it works kind of both ways.
04:02But it seems like in both those cases, a bit of a quid pro quo.
04:06Eric Adams, you help me out and do what I want.
04:08New York, I'll help you here. Mel Gibson, you be my special ambassador.
04:12I help you here. And doling out favors.
04:15The whole concept of the Justice Department is it's supposed to be independent
04:19from the, really, from the executive branch.
04:22There's supposed to be a wall, but that never actually was put into practice
04:26and Trump doesn't necessarily see it that way.
04:28And on the other side, you got Joe Biden saying that the Justice Department was weaponized
04:32against his son, Honor Biden, when he got prosecuted.
04:36And so he undermines so much of what the Democrats had worked so hard to establish
04:40for so many years by doing that, not only for his son,
04:43but for his brother, his sister, and everybody else he seemed to care about.
04:48It's just very scary, the whole concept that you can be good at your job,
04:52be known for being good at your job, and then you're prosecuted for it
04:55because you then get fired.
04:57If Mel Gibson had that brutal of an attack on an ex, somebody that he loved,
05:01I think, without question, there's no reason why he shouldn't get his guns back.
05:05We're living in crazy times, folks.