Suit says DOJ asked Oyer to approve Gibson gun rights as political favor

Oyer seeks reinstatement, back pay in D.C. federal court filing

Elizabeth Oyer, who served as the U.S. pardon attorney from April 2022 until March 2025, filed the complaint Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Justice Department and Blanche — the official who fired her and now leads the department as attorney general. The lawsuit alleges that in early 2025, while Oyer was serving as pardon attorney, she was asked to “disregard her duties and facilitate a political favor” for Gibson based on his “relationship with President Trump.”

According to the complaint, Oyer was “asked to make it seem like an independent review had concluded that Mr Gibson, who was convicted of a domestic violence offense, should have his gun rights restored.” Oyer says she declined, and that “shortly after, she was fired by then deputy attorney general Todd Blanche” in March 2025.

Gibson, a prominent Trump supporter, lost his federal gun rights after a 2011 domestic violence misdemeanor conviction, according to the New York Times. The Times reported in April 2025 that the Justice Department was set to restore Gibson’s gun rights.

Oyer had previously told the Times that she was dismissed a day after refusing to recommend restoring Gibson’s gun rights, and the newspaper reported that two people familiar with the events confirmed her account of Justice Department discussions involving guns, domestic violence and star power. Following her dismissal, a Justice Department official told the Times that the disagreement over Gibson played no role in the decision.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit and its allegations.

Before becoming pardon attorney, Oyer served as an assistant federal public defender and a senior litigation counsel in the office of the federal public defender for the district of Maryland.

The lawsuit argues that Oyer’s removal was “unlawful” and that it “violated” her “constitutional due process rights and her rights under the Civil Service Reform Act” as well as her First Amendment rights, and asserts that her removal also violated “core separation of power principles.”

Oyer is asking the court to declare her removal unlawful, reinstate her to federal service, and restore the pay and benefits she says she is owed. She is also seeking an order to prohibit the Justice Department from taking any “further adverse personnel action” against her “without the protections required by law.”

Oyer’s lawsuit formalizes a dispute she first aired in July at Blanche’s confirmation hearings, when she told the Senate Judiciary Committee that her March 2025 dismissal was tied to her refusal to recommend restoring Gibson’s gun rights. As MSI previously reported, Blanche, now attorney general, said during his own confirmation testimony that Oyer’s termination was not connected to the Gibson case.