The Department of Justice is trying to use executive privilege to stop a fired pardon attorney from testifying before Congress, The New York Times reported.
Elizabeth Oyer was set to testify about the details of a disagreement with supervisors about restoring gun rights to Mel Gibson, the Academy Award winning actor and prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, according to the Times.
A lawyer in the deputy attorney general’s office warned Oyer she was “not authorized to disclose” records about the firearms issue in her testimony, while Oyer’s lawyer says the Justice Department is trying to intimidate a whistleblower, the Times said.
Oyer was fired last month after disagreements over whether Gibson, who was previously convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, should be allowed to own a gun again. Justice Department officials told the Times her firing was unrelated to the Gibson dispute.
The letter said internal deliberations over the restoration of Gibson’s gun rights were “likely covered by one or more components of executive privilege and would implicate the rules of professional responsibility and that Oyer was “not authorized to disclose any records of the department to Congress with respect to the department’s consideration of the restoration of firearm rights,” the Times reported.
An attorney for Oyer countered that the executive privilege claims were without merit since Trump had not asserted executive privilege over any of the issues.
“Executive privilege cannot be asserted to protect misconduct,” Michael Bromwich said in a letter to the Justice Department. Oyer “will not be deterred by the intimidation tactics deployed by your office from providing truthful, lawful testimony.”
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