Justice Department officials will allow the actor Mel Gibson, a prominent supporter of President Trump, to own guns again, ending a once contentious debate that had roiled the upper ranks of the department, according to people familiar with the decision.
Concerns over restoring Mr. Gibson’s gun rights led to a tense back-and-forth with the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, Elizabeth G. Oyer, shortly before she was fired by the Trump administration last month.
The decision, which also applies to nine others, was approved by Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The specifics are expected to be published in The Federal Register, they added.
A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Oyer previously said she had refused to recommend that Mr. Gibson be included on a short list of people with criminal convictions who could have their gun rights restored, despite pressure to do so from her superiors.
She said in an interview with The New York Times after her firing that a department official had tried to convince her to change her mind because Mr. Gibson “has a personal relationship with President Trump.”
Not long after that conversation, she and several other senior career lawyers at the Justice Department were abruptly terminated. A senior department official has denied that her dismissal was related to the disagreement about Mr. Gibson.
Ms. Oyer said she had resisted because Mr. Gibson’s prior conviction was for a misdemeanor domestic violence matter. He pleaded no contest in 2011 to a battery charge involving his former girlfriend.
Ms. Oyer said in the interview that her concerns had nothing to do with politics, but with the safety risks of allowing someone with a record of domestic violence to own a gun.
A lawyer for Mr. Gibson had asked the Trump administration to restore his gun rights, saying that in recent years he had tried to buy a weapon in Nevada but been denied because of the conviction.
Even with a green light from the federal government, Mr. Gibson is not guaranteed to be able to own a gun again, since different states have their own restrictions on who can legally possess a firearm. Nevada state law prohibits convicted felons from owning a gun, but Mr. Gibson pleaded to a misdemeanor, not a felony.
A spokesman for Mr. Gibson did not immediately comment.
The Trump administration’s effort to restore gun rights to Mr. Gibson is part of a broader bid by conservatives to allow some people with criminal convictions to again own firearms.
Last year, the Supreme Court upheld government rules restricting firearms access for people facing restraining orders for domestic violence, but Mr. Trump has since ordered a review of the federal government’s gun policies, with an eye toward loosening restrictions.
In that vein, the Justice Department recently published new regulations to restore gun rights to some people with criminal convictions. The department said it still wants to ensure that “violent and dangerous people” cannot lawfully acquire firearms, as long as there is “an appropriate avenue” to restore rights to people who have earned the chance to own guns again, according to an interim rule published last month in The Federal Register.
Determining whose gun rights should be restored depends on a number of factors, the notice says, including “a combination of the nature of their past criminal activity and their subsequent and current law-abiding behavior.”
Under a decades-old law, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can return gun rights to specific people. But starting in 1992, congressional spending bills barred the agency from doing so.
The interim rule effectively returns that authority to the attorney general, who may then delegate it to another Justice Department official or office.
Gun Owners of America, a lobbying group, called the interim rule “outstanding progress,” while Kris Brown, the president of Brady, a gun control advocacy group, said that the change was “a blatant and dangerous power grab by the Trump administration, and a gift to his donors in the gun industry.”
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times. More about Devlin Barrett
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