Liz Oyer
Liz Oyer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Occupation | lawyer |
| Known for | served as the Department of Justice's Pardon Attorney |
Liz Oyer is an American lawyer who served as the Department of Justice's Pardon Attorney from April 2022, to March 2025.[1] Since then she has frequently commented on lapses in the granting and denials of Presidential pardons.[2][3][4]
On June 9, 2025 Oyer described how lawyers for Brad Bondi, Pam Bondi's brother, demanded she to retract her Tiktok post asserting Trevor Milton's Presidential Pardon was achieved by Brad Bondi, after he donated $1.6 million to Donald Trump's re-election campaign.[5]
Oyer told The New York Times that Trump's pardon of the January 6th insurrectionists was performed without a review by her office.[6]
Oyer's dismissal, in March, 2026, was sudden.[7] However, she was dismissed within hours of telling superiors she could not recommend resumption of Mel Gibson's second amendment right to own guns. Gibson routinely had his gun rights stripped after he pled guilty to domestic violence charges.[8] Oyer's duties included reviewing detailed reports into the background of individuals who had their gun rights suspended, who were applying for a pardon.[9] She had been handed nine detailed dossiers of individuals who had a record of personal reform and community service, and her response memo, listng all nine, recommended re-instatement. She was then asked to add Gibson to her list. She wrote she could not make a recommendation in Gibson's case, because she didn't have the background information she usually relied on for her recommendations. She did not receive a reply to her memo. But she was dismissed, without being offered a reason.
In January 2026 she noted that the press had not given much scrutiny to the fact that senior Department of Justice officials had told her former colleagues that they were not to conduct an investigation in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross's fatal shooting of unarmed civilian Renee Good.[10][11]
References
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"Former Pardon Attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer". Department of Justice. Archived from the original on 2025-03-11. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
Prior to her appointment, Ms. Oyer spent 10 years as a federal public defender. She served as Senior Litigation Counsel to the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland, where she represented individuals at all stages of proceedings and in all types of criminal cases in federal district court. In addition, she was the Office’s ethics advisor, discovery policy coordinator, and a mentor to junior attorneys.
- ↑ "Basic facts about Trump's use of pardons—and how it is different from Biden's". Liz Oyer via YouTube. 2026-06-04. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
- ↑
"Dozens of pardoned Jan. 6 rioters charged or convicted of new crimes". Liz Oyer via YouTube. 2026-06-06. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
Five years after the Capitol siege and one year after Trump’s mass pardons, dozens of pardoned January 6 rioters are back in prison or facing new charges. I discuss some highlights here, and you can check out this helpful resource for more information: https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/at-least-33-pardoned-insurrectionists-face-other-criminal-charges-but-many-are-now-going-free.
- ↑
"More pardon madness". Liz Oyer via YouTube. 2026-06-16. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
Yesterday, Donald Trump secretly granted a whole bunch more pardons. Some are still under wraps. Here’s what we know so far.
- ↑
Liz Oyer (2025-06-09). "Brad Bondi's attorneys asked me to retract my post about the pardon of Trevor Milton. Here's why". Lawyer Oyer via YouTube. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
Brad Bondi’s attorneys asked me to retract my post about the pardon of Trevor Milton.
- ↑
Emily Bazelon; Rachel Poser (2025-11-17). "60 Attorneys on the Year of Chaos Inside Trump's Justice Department". The New York Times. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
Liz Oyer, pardon attorney: We had no knowledge that the Jan. 6 pardons were coming on Day 1. Everybody was concerned that our office was being completely sidelined from the review process.
- ↑
"DOJ attorney says she was fired after refusing to restore Mel Gibson's gun rights". CNN via YouTube. 2025-03-12. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer says she was fired after she refused to restore Mel Gibson's gun rights.
- ↑
"Mel Gibson's Lethal Weapon Blocked". The Damage Report via YouTube. 2025-03-11. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
Actor Mel Gibson surges into the spotlight as the pardon attorney for the Department of Justice, Elizabeth Oyer, reveals she was suddenly terminated under the Donald Trump administration the day after refusing to give Mel Gibson his gun rights back because he was a friend of Trump.
- ↑
Liz Oyer (2025-12-26). "I Was the President's Pardon Attorney. He's Making a Mockery of the Pardon Process". The New York Times. p. SR8. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
But for the most part, they relied on the Justice Department’s pardon attorney — a position I held for nearly three years — to evaluate clemency applications. Even when they acted against their pardon attorney’s advice, they typically did so with the benefit of a thorough investigation and analysis prepared by a team of nonpolitical experts. Mr. Trump has flipped the table on the deliberative approach favored by his predecessors.
- ↑
David Benjamin (2026-01-13). "WHO let him off the hook? DOJ Lawyer Breaks Down ALARMING Decision on ICE Agent Shooting". Max Kuhn channel via YouTube. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
In this video, we play a clip from Liz Oyer (@lawyer_oyer), a former Department of Justice attorney, responding to a CBS News report and explaining how the decision was made, who had authority, and why it matters.
- ↑ Jim Acasta (January 2026). "Fmr DOJ pardon atty Liz Oyer says Justice Dept is engaged in a cover-up in killing of Renée Good". The Jim Acosta Show via YouTube. Retrieved 2026-01-18.