The New York Times<\/a> that Justice Department leadership cited Gibson\u2019s close relationship with President Trump in asking for his gun rights to be restored.\u00a0<\/p>\nGibson lost his gun rights in connection with a 2011 conviction on misdemeanor domestic violence charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is dangerous. This isn\u2019t political \u2014 this is a safety issue,\u201d Oyer told the outlet, noting the risks associated with restoring gun rights to those convicted of violent crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving guns back to domestic abusers is a serious matter that, in my view, is not something that I could recommend lightly, because there are real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Justice Department official denied the reporting, saying the disagreement over Gibson played no role in the dismissal.<\/p>\n
The White House did not immediately provide a comment. <\/p>\n
Oyer told the Times that as part of the task force work, she initially came up with a list of 95 people whose crimes were decades old, who had petitioned to have their gun rights restored, and for whom Oyer thought the risk of recidivism was low.<\/p>\n
The list was given to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who culled the list to nine individuals, Oyer added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sent it back to me saying, \u2018We would like you to add Mel Gibson to this memo,'”Oyer said. <\/p>\n
That included a letter from Gibson\u2019s lawyers noting he had been tapped by Trump as a Hollywood \u201cambassador\u201d and referencing his successful film career, Oyer told the Times, adding that the request surprised her as Gibson has not undergone the typical background investigation to assess whether he was likely to reoffend.<\/p>\n
The official from Blanche\u2019s office asked if Oyer\u2019s position was \u201cflexible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe then essentially explained to me that Mel Gibson has a personal relationship with President Trump and that should be sufficient basis for me to make a recommendation and that I would be wise to make the recommendation,\u201d she told the Times.<\/p>\n
Oyer also said she ended the conversation saying she would think of a way to \u201cthread the needle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally did not sleep a wink that night because I understood that the position I was in was one that was going to either require me to compromise my strongly held views and ethics or would likely result in me losing my ability to participate in these conversations going forward,\u201d she told the Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe this, but I really think Mel Gibson is going to be my downfall,\u201d she said she told a colleague.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, Oyer said she submitted a memo saying she knew little of Gibson\u2019s case and that the decision should rest with the attorney general, adding that security officers delivered the letter firing her hours later.<\/p>\n
Oyer was one of several Justice Department officials\u00a0fired Friday<\/a>, posting a photo of her termination letter on LinkedIn and saying she was fired \u201cfrom the job I have poured my heart and soul into for the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of the Department of Justice (DOJ) office that makes pardon recommendations to the president said she was fired after refusing to sign off on...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions\/753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}