Convicted domestic abusers will not be automatically shut out of a new federal program to restore gun rights, a complaint filed by the government’s former top clemency lawyer alleges, because a senior official said relief had to be granted to Mel Gibson.
Elizabeth Oyer, the former U.S. pardon attorney, filed the complaint with the department’s inspector general. It targets Associate Deputy Attorney General Paul Perkins.
Oyer says she pushed for a blanket exclusion barring people with domestic violence convictions from regaining firearms access while the restoration program was still being designed. She says she was overruled, and she alleges the overruling was because of ties between the 70-year-old “Lethal Weapon” star and President Donald Trump.
“Ms. Oyer was advised by Mr. Perkins that domestic violence offenders could not be excluded because it was necessary to grant relief to Mel Gibson,” the complaint states.
Perkins denied the allegation, calling it “categorically false.” Such a statement — that domestic violence offenders could not be excluded because relief had to be granted to Gibson — was never made by him to Oyer, he said.
Program Opens Without Exclusion
The Justice Department has opened the first stage of the federal gun-rights restoration program, which is for Americans who are legally prohibited from owning guns, without the catch-all exclusion Oyer says she urged.
Final rules issued by Attorney General Todd Blanche have now taken effect, and people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence can still apply. The department says it will generally refuse to restore their rights for 10 years absent extraordinary circumstances.
The question of whether people with domestic violence convictions would be eligible surfaced in February 2025, as the project was getting underway, Oyer says. Her proposal was to exclude them entirely, or, if that failed, to seek guidance on the dangers involved from the DOJ Office on Violence Against Women.
According to the document, the reason given was Gibson’s personal relationship with the president. Gibson figures in the government’s thinking from the program’s very start, the complaint indicates — months before reports that the Justice Department had restored the actor’s gun rights.
The Gibson Application Fight
The presidential pardon process had already extensively vetted the 95 people Oyer and her staff identified as possible candidates for firearms restoration. Department leadership cut that group down to nine.
A memo recommending those candidates went from Oyer to Perkins on March 6, 2025. She says Perkins responded by instructing her to add Gibson, who had not gone through the same vetting. She says Gibson’s attorney, in asking for the rights back, cited the actor’s relationship with Trump and the famous movies he had made over his career.
Perkins, after she refused to recommend him, telephoned to ask whether her position was flexible and conveyed that she would be wise to make the recommendation, Oyer alleges. A memo she filed the following morning contained information about Gibson but stopped short of recommending him. Hours later, Blanche fired her.
Oyer confirms she was fired in March 2025 for refusing to recommend restoring Gibson’s gun rights. She is suing the department and Blanche over her firing, and the lawsuit is still moving through the courts.
Any role for Gibson in the dismissal has been denied by Blanche, who told senators at his confirmation hearing that he knew nothing about the Gibson matter when he removed her.
Advocates Warn of Danger
The risk that a male abuser will shoot and kill a female partner rises by 1,000 percent when he has access to a firearm, according to Tonia Moultry-Pace, interim president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV).
“Removing guns from convicted domestic violence offenders is a lifesaving protection,” Moultry-Pace said.
Taking away that safeguard, she warned, shows disregard for survivors and will leave thousands of victims in grave danger. Domestic violence campaigners say the policy will cost lives.
Gibson’s Record and Ties
A no contest plea in 2011 to misdemeanor spousal battery involving his former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, cost Gibson his federal firearms rights. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi restored the actor’s gun rights in 2025.
In January 2025, Trump named Gibson an “ambassador” to Hollywood alongside fellow actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone.