Todd Blanche reacted with alarm after firing the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, fearing the timing would look like retaliation over actor Mel Gibson, according to a report from PunchUp’s Tom Latchem.
Blanche, who was deputy attorney general at the time and has since taken over the department after the firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, dismissed pardon attorney Liz Oyer in March 2025 as part of a wider removal of career DOJ officials. Multiple sources told PunchUp that Blanche did so without knowing Oyer had been in a private disagreement with one of his aides over whether Gibson should have his gun rights restored.
Gibson, 70, lost those rights after pleading no contest to misdemeanor battery involving his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in 2011.
Oyer has said then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Paul Perkins told her “to add Gibson to a shortlist for firearms rights restoration” and that Gibson’s relationship with Donald Trump should be sufficient reason to recommend him. Sources told PunchUp that Oyer submitted “a revised memo the next morning that included Gibson’s name but no recommendation.” Perkins considered the matter resolved and did not raise it with Blanche, sources familiar with his thinking said. Hours later, Blanche fired Oyer.
According to PunchUp’s sources, Perkins did not tell Blanche about the dispute until Monday, March 10. A DOJ source with direct knowledge said Blanche immediately realized how Oyer could view the timing. Blanche reacted with an expletive and said, “She’s going to think that’s why I fired her,” according to the source.
PunchUp noted that the chronology, if correct, would support “Blanche’s longstanding denial” that the Gibson dispute played any part in the firing. But it “does not explain why Gibson was included in the initial group.” Perkins previously told PunchUp that DOJ leadership had decided to include Gibson before he took over the project, though he said he didn’t know who made the decision.
Oyer’s spokesperson disputed the DOJ’s account.
“What they say at this point has zero credibility,” the spokesperson said, adding that the department repeatedly refused her requests for an official explanation. The spokesperson said the DOJ admitted in litigation that the facts, as Oyer stated them, were not in dispute until her firing became a problem for Blanche at his confirmation hearing, and asked: “whether Mr. Blanche perjured himself before Congress.”
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