Justice Dept. Lawyer Says She Was Fired After Rejecting Mel Gibson’s Gun Request

A Justice Department pardon attorney says she was pressured to recommend that Mel Gibson be restored his gun rights because of his friendship with President Donald Trump ― and she was fired after she failed to do so.

“This is dangerous,” attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer told The New York Times on Monday. “This isn’t political ― this is a safety issue.”

A Justice Department official denied that the Gibson case was the cause of her dismissal, according to the Times.

The “Lethal Weapon” star lost his right to own a firearm in 2011 after pleading no contest to misdemeanor battery against a girlfriend. He also had made a death threat in a recorded conversation, saying he would brain her with a baseball bat and plant her in a rose garden.

Oyer told the newspaper that a request was made to add the actor to a list of people whose gun rights could potentially be reinstated ― with his lawyer mentioning that Gibson was named a “special ambassador” to Hollywood by Trump recently.

Noting to the Times the “real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms,” Oyer told her bosses she could not recommend Gibson’s reinstatement to the attorney general.

(Abusers who possess firearms are “five times more likely” to kill their partners, according to statistics cited by the gun safety advocacy group Everytown.)

She said an official from U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office then called her to explain that 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.”

She presented a memo on the matter the next day but still did not back the restoration of Gibson’s gun rights, the Times wrote.

She got canned within hours, Oyer said.

HuffPost has reached out to Gibson’s representatives for comment.