That DOJ Lawyer Fired for Refusing to Give Mel Gibson His Guns Back Is on TikTok to Explain Trump’s Pardons

Liz Oyer was fired from the U.S. Department of Justice in March after she refused to recommend that actor Mel Gibson be allowed to own firearms again after a domestic violence conviction. The Trump regime tried to pressure Oyer, who worked in the office that handles pardons, by noting that Gibson was a friend of the president. But she refused to budge and was escorted out of the building by security on the order of DOJ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Oyer never received an official reason for her dismissal, but it was clear that it had everything to do with her refusal to recommend that Gibson get his gun rights back.

In an earlier era, the American public may not have heard much more about Oyer and her stand against corruption. But thanks to social media, she now has a direct channel to speak with the public and can help us understand the dirty deals that seem to be perpetrated by President Trump’s government on a daily basis. Oyer has joined TikTok and Instagram to help explain how the pardons Trump has been issuing, often to wealthy donors, are corrupt as hell. And it’s really enlightening to watch.

Oyer’s most popular TikTok video so far is about restitution, the requirement that people who commit crimes pay back the money they stole, and she does a great job explaining how Trump’s pardons of countless crooks have meant that roughly $1.2 billion in restitution (and counting) won’t be paid back. Because those pardons don’t just wipe the convictions, they also wipe out any money owed.

In the case of people like Trevor Milton, the founder of EV company Nikola, who was pardoned by Trump last month, the amount of money that’s no longer owed in restitution is truly mind-boggling. Milton was convicted of defrauding investors, and the DOJ was seeking $675 million in restitution for his victims. But now that Milton has his pardon, he won’t be paying a dime. As Oyer explains in her video about Milton, the billionaire donated $1.8 million to President Trump’s campaign. Milton also hired an attorney named Brad Bondi, who’s the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Funny coincidence.

Hilariously, the President defended his pardon of Milton by insisting that the only thing the EV founder did wrong was support Trump, which isn’t a crime. “They say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president. He supported Trump. He liked Trump. I didn’t know him, but he liked him,” Trump rambled incoherently. In reality, Milton staged a fake demonstration in 2016 of a semi-truck for his investors. That’s what got him in trouble.

Oyer spoke to Gizmodo this week and calls herself a “social media neophyte.” She had a private Instagram account but no other social media use to speak of—that is, until last week when a family member pushed her to try TikTok. Oyer had some important tips, including the suggestion to introduce yourself early in each video, something that’s not obvious to first-time creators on platforms where people speak directly to the camera.

“A younger cousin of mine really encouraged me to take my story to TikTok because they believed that I would potentially reach a larger and different audience there. And it took some prodding,” Oyer told Gizmodo by phone.

“A couple of content creators with a lot of followers, including my cousin, were kind enough to sit me down and give me a 90-minute tutorial on how TikTok works. And after that, it still took me maybe about a week to actually work up the courage to make a video for TikTok,” said Oyer.

“So it was a process. And I have to admit that I was skeptical at first about whether it was something that I could even do,” said Oyer. “But, you know, I actually feel like they were right. It’s been a very effective way to reach a different and very engaged audience.”

Oyer started as a public defender and said that her work at the DOJ was striving to make sure that people who had been treated unfairly got a chance to receive clemency.

“My primary goal as pardon attorney was to really make the clemency process accessible to people who had been treated unfairly by the criminal justice system and to make the possibility of clemency a reality for those people who had faced sentences that were overly harsh,” said Oyer. “And those people are not the type of people that we are seeing getting pardons under this administration.”

The people Trump has been pardoning have largely been wealthy individuals who donated money to his interests or people who have demonstrated loyalty. And in some cases, it’s both. Aside from the money that will no longer be paid in restitution, the thing that makes Trump’s pardons so egregious is the simple fact that many of the people he’s letting off weren’t even sentenced yet. That’s not normal.

“The Justice Department has a whole set of guidelines that lay out the criteria for recommending pardons, and they say that someone should not even be considered for a pardon until they have completed their sentence and at least five years have passed since they finished serving their sentence,” said Oyer. “So historically, pardons are generally viewed as something that go to people who have served their sentence, paid their debt, demonstrated rehabilitation and good conduct in the time that has elapsed. And those criteria are all absent in every one of the pardons that Trump has granted to date.”

Oyer tells the stories of people like Paul Walczak, the health care entrepreneur who was skimming money from his employees’ paychecks, and Michele Fiore, the justice of the peace in Las Vegas who raised money for a police officer memorial and instead spent the money on plastic surgery. And each pardon is more enraging than the last for its obviously corrupt motives.

Oyer was asked to testify on Capitol Hill about Trump’s attacks on the rule of law, and her former employer has tried to intimidate her over her desire to speak out. As Oyer told Democrats last month, two armed special deputy U.S. Marshals delivered a letter warning her not to testify. But she’s speaking out anyway.

Oyer says that she’s received some trolling from pro-Trump folks but has mostly had positive interactions on social media so far, with some people even asking good questions that have given her ideas for future videos. And Oyer tells Gizmodo she’ll continue making videos for a while, as long as people are interested in what she has to say.

If you’re not already following Oyer, she’s one to check out as she helpfully breaks down Trump’s corruption using expertise that provides unique insights into the horrors. And if we can’t stop the horrors, at least we can be told that none of this is normal. The pardons, the exchange of money, none of it is normal. Being told that by someone who knows what they’re talking about is at least something.