'Dangerous': Ex-DOJ lawyer claims firing due to opposing Mel Gibson's right to buy guns

A former pardon attorney at the Department of Justice says she was fired after refusing to support the restoration of actor Mel Gibson's gun rights, The New York Times reported Monday night.

"Elizabeth G. Oyer, the former pardon attorney, described the sequence of events as an alarming departure from longstanding practice, one that put public safety and the department’s integrity at risk. Mr. Gibson had lost his gun rights as a result of a 2011 domestic violence misdemeanor conviction," reported Devlin Barrett. "Ms. Oyer’s account of a series of Justice Department discussions about guns, domestic violence and star power was confirmed by two other people familiar with the events, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation."

Oyer was "one of a number of high-ranking Justice Department officials who were fired on Friday, the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to remove or demote senior career lawyers who play critical roles in department decisions," noted the report. "She was not told why she was dismissed, but as events unfolded, she feared that they might lead to her firing."

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“This is dangerous. This isn’t political — this is a safety issue,” Oyer told The Times, about the push to let Gibson buy guns again.

Federal law prohibits gun ownership for people convicted of certain crimes, and state domestic violence convictions are part of that category, due to a wealth of evidence it is a risk factor for future violence. The DOJ can restore these rights through clemency in certain circumstances, but it is rarely done.

"Mr. Trump has a history of making pardon decisions without substantial input from the pardon attorney, but in this case Justice Department leaders planned to make the decision about gun rights on their own," noted the report.

Gibson, a Trump supporter with a history of controversial behavior including drunken antisemitic rants to police, was recently appointed as one of Trump's "special ambassadors to Hollywood," along with fellow right-wing actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone.