Blanche in Panic as His Worst Nightmare Sues Him Again in Court to Get Her DOJ Job Back

0:00Michael Popok:I think it's quite fitting that on the same day that Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon and leader, died, is the same day that Liz Oyer, a highly exemplary public servant, working not for politics or partisan gain, but working for the American people, doing her level best as the pardon attorney until she was unceremoniously fired by then Deputy Attorney General Todd. Blanche. What was her crime? What was her sin? She refused to recommend the restoration of gun rights for Mel Gibson, who had been accused and convicted of domestic violence. But because Mel Gibson, the actor, is a friend of Donald Trump, they wanted Liz Oyer to be complicit in their scheme to restore his gun rights.

0:54Michael Popok:Let's be frank. President doesn't need Liz Oyer to be part of his conspiracy. If he wanted to give Mel Gibson his gun rights back, he could have done it whether he was on Liz Oyer's list or not. But they wanted Liz Oyer's imprimatur. They wanted her to run interference and cast an air of legitimacy over the restoration of his gun rights. And she refused to be complicit. And then she got fired. She got fired not by the attorney general, which is the requirement for somebody at her level as a senior executive service member. She got fired by the DAG, by the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Now we've got a brand new suit brought by Liz Hoyer's lawyers.

1:39Michael Popok:The pardon lawyers have filed their suit in the District of Columbia claiming that she was wrongfully terminated, that her Fifth Amendment rights, because she wasn't given proper due process before her career was ruined, a career that she wanted to serve out until retirement, her First Amendment rights for expressing her professional opinion and being retaliated against as a result, that the appointments clause was violated, separation of powers were violated, the Administrative Procedures Act was violated, and we've got this brand new lawsuit. And thank you to Liz Oyer. She's been on Legal AF and on the Court of History before.

2:21Michael Popok:for filing this lawsuit. We bring the receipts here on Legal AF. I'm Michael Popok, Labor Day weekend. Take a moment, hit that free subscribe button. We're trying to grow our pro-democracy channel this weekend here and on Legal AF Substack. Let's get to the new filing, which we'll put up in Legal AF Substack for our paid members. The lawsuit argues, alleges on information and belief and Otherwise, that the only reason Liz Oyer lost her job is because she refused to kowtow to Donald Trump about Mel Gibson's gun rights. In fact, we've seen Liz lately. She testified against Todd Blanche when he was in his confirmation hearing for Attorney General.

3:09Michael Popok:Who can remember, who can forget, sorry, the courage that it took for Liz to come forward and give this testimony? Here's a clip. Two days after Mr. Blanche was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, he fired me from my position as the department's career pardon attorney. I declined to rubber stamp a political favor for a friend of the president, and it cost me my job. Mr. Blanche's office had asked me to recommend restoring the gun ownership rights of a convicted domestic abuser. I raised concerns about public safety, but Mr. Blanche's staff pressured me to go along anyway. I did not. Domestic violence is the leading type of homicide among women.

3:53When a domestic abuser is armed, his victim is five times more likely to be killed. But because this particular domestic abuser had a personal relationship with the president, Mr. Blanche's staff asked me to set aside my concerns. When I wouldn't, Mr. Blanche fired me within hours. He then took extraordinary measures to silence me. He sent U.S. Marshals to my home in an effort to prevent me from speaking with members of Congress.

4:25Michael Popok:Todd Blanche was asked about the firing of Liz Oyer during his confirmation process, and he denied that Mel Gibson was the reason. They've always denied that Mel Gibson was the reason. Here's Todd Blanche talking about Liz Oyer. You know who Liz Oyer is? Yes. And you know who Mel Gibson is? Yes. All right. Mel Gibson was convicted of domestic violence. What he did was he punched his then girlfriend in the teeth, threatened her with a gun, while she had their infant in her arms. Now, it's the president's decision he can restore Mr. Gibson's gun rights. That's not your decision. But my understanding is you had a pardon attorney who, when requests were made to restore gun rights to domestic abusers, they'd be vetted.

5:23mental health issues, other issues, and that's because 500 % increase in homicide rates of domestic abusers who have guns. You asked, or one of your people asked, Liz Oyer, to provide a letter that basically said, okay, we can restore his gun rights. Is that correct? i that happened the day i was starting um i know ms lawyer has claimed it was two days after that i know that ms lawyer has claimed that that had anything to do with her firing i didn't even know that i had no nothing about mel gibson or that letter when i fired her nothing so why did you fire her for a number of reasons for one there are two days yes for a number of reasons It had nothing to do with Mel Gibson.

6:19The decisions that she had made at pardon attorney in the weeks and months leading up to the end of President Biden's term were completely inconsistent with President Trump's authority, including recommending commuting every single individual on death row, which even President Biden didn't do. I'll let the Americans be the jury of whether that sounds right. But two days after you were there, she got fired. She was told to do a letter that was basically going to validate the decision the president had made to restore gun rights to a man who smashed his girlfriend's mouth, served her with a gun and did it with her holding their infant.

7:05Michael Popok:Now, here's what the lawsuit just filed says. Let's go to paragraph 29. After going through her exemplary career as a career federal employee, she got her dream job to be the pardon lawyer, to recommend to the president of the United States who he should pardon, he or she should pardon. until, of course, she got caught in the maelstrom after the change in administrations from Biden to Trump. It all came crashing down because of Mel Gibson. And it involves Todd Blanche. Let's go through first paragraph 28. Paragraph 28 of the complaint, we can put it up on the board, says that she prepared a list, the Office of the Pardon Attorney, of approximately 95 candidates.

7:56Michael Popok:They were provided to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General Blanche. Mr. Blanche's staff cut the list of candidates down to nine, so she had recommended 95 candidates. They cut it down to nine and asked Ms. Oyer to draft a memo recommending those nine individuals have their gun rights restored. She drafted that memo for those nine. Paragraph 29, Mr. Blanche's staff came back to Oyer with another request. They asked to add the actor Mel Gibson to the list. Ms. Oyer learned that Mr. Gibson had lost his right to own a gun following a conviction for domestic violence crime and that Mr. Gibson had asked the Attorney General to exercise her statutory authority to restore his gun rights.

8:41Ms.

8:41Michael Popok:Oyer, paragraph 30, had serious concerns about the public safety implications of granting Ms. Gibson's request in light of his history of domestic violence and the well-documented dangers of placing firearms in the hands of domestic abusers. Paragraph 33, on March 6, 2025, or paragraph 32, in an email, Ms. Oyer communicated her concerns to Mr. Blanche's staff and indicated that she would not be recommending that the Attorney General restore Mr. Gibson's gun rights. Later that same day, paragraph 33, a senior official called Ms. Oyer and urged her to recommend reinstatement of his gun rights because of his personal relationship with Donald Trump.

9:24Michael Popok:The official employed a bullying tone and suggested to Ms. Oyer that she would be wise to make the recommendation, sort of like, or else, but she refused. And therefore, she, within hours of that, got fired. I mean, within a day of refusing on Mel Gibson. So to hear Todd Blanche say, oh, Mel Gibson had nothing to do with it. Are you kidding me? Just look at the timeline. Look at the causal connection, the temporal connection between her refusal and her firing. And she also reminds the Department of Justice in her filing that there are rules that need to be followed. There are rules as a civil servant that she's entitled to process, and that there's a statute that needs to be filed and followed before she can be canned.

10:20Michael Popok:Of course, they never did that under the Civil Service Reform Act. They were followed at all. And they also didn't follow Department of Justice's own internal guidelines and rules and policies that somebody at Liz Oyer's level cannot be fired unless she is fired by the attorney general. And Pam Bondi didn't fire her. She had her henchman, Todd Blanche, do it. Another defect which should get her ultimately reinstated. Now, what does she want? She wants her job back. She wants her job back, and she wants, of course, damages in her career. In the wherefore clause, this is what she's asking for, prayer for relief.

11:07Michael Popok:This is on page 14 and 15. Declare the defendants have violated her constitutional and statutory rights. Declare that the defendants have violated the separation of powers, declare that the removal notice is void, declare the defendant's reliance on Article 2 as a basis for removal is invalid, order her reinstatement, upon her reinstatement, give her back the pay that she's owed, back pay that she's owed, and enjoin them from taking any further personnel actions against her once she gets her job back as required by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution related to due process. Here's a clip of Liz when she was being interviewed.

11:46The office in which I served, the Office of the Pardon Attorney, has always been headed by a career official, somebody who's able to make recommendations about clemency to the president free from political influence or considerations of partisanship. I was prepared to continue in that role, but about seven weeks into the new administration, I was very abruptly fired. It It was a Friday afternoon. I was actually pulled out of a meeting by a colleague to inform me that there were two security officers back in my office waiting to escort me out of the building. I went back there and they delivered me a very brief letter that told me I was being fired under Article 2 of the Constitution.

12:25It contained no further explanation. I was escorted that afternoon out of my office. And that was the end of my career at the Department of Justice. I was not given an explanation for my firing, but you're correct that what precipitated it was that I was asked to make a recommendation to the attorney general that she restored the right to possess a firearm of the actor Mel Gibson, who apparently has a personal relationship with the president. He lost his right to own a gun when he was convicted of domestic violence in 2011 and was seeking to get his gun rights back through the Department of Justice.

13:04I notified the leadership of the department that I was not going to be able to make that recommendation the same day that I was fired. And literally hours later, I got this letter.

13:15Michael Popok:Liz Oyer, an icon. She should win this lawsuit. The court should take it seriously. I think they will. We'll continue to follow it and platform her story here on Legal AF. If you appreciate the work that we do, hit that free subscribe button. Help us to grow over the weekend. And I'm running a 50 % off sale for Legal AF Substack for paid members, annual members from now until Monday at midnight Eastern time. Take advantage of it and you too will become a card carrying member of the Legal AF community. Until my next report, this is Michael. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack.

13:51Michael Popok:Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call. Wait for it. Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.