Mel Gibson is reportedly slated to have his gun rights restored.
The actor, who lost the rights after being convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor in 2011, has apparently been granted a restoration by Justice Department officials. Citing sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, The New York Times reports that the decision was ultimately approved by Attorney General Pam Bondi and also applies to nine others.
They added that further details will be published in The Federal Register.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department and Gibson’s representatives for comment.
A fierce supporter of President Donald Trump’s and one of his Special Ambassadors to Hollywood, Gibson’s gun rights made headlines last month after The Times reported that a Justice Department official was fired for refusing to restore them.
Elizabeth Oyer, a former pardon attorney, told The Times that she was working alongside a group to restore gun rights to people with convictions and claimed that she was told to add Gibson to the list of limited candidates.
“They sent it back to me saying, ‘We would like you to add Mel Gibson to this memo,‘” Oyer said, reiterating that she was hesitant to do so because it was “dangerous” and presented a “safety issue.”
When she tried push back against adding Gibson to the list, Oyer claimed that she received a call from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office where a staffer “essentially explained to me that Mel Gibson has a personal relationship with President Trump and that should be sufficient basis for me to make a recommendation and that I would be wise to make the recommendation.”
“I understood that the position I was in was one that was going to either require me to compromise my strongly held views and ethics or would likely result in me losing my ability to participate in these conversations going forward,” she told The Times.
In January, Trump appointed Gibson, Jon Voight, and Sylvester Stallone as his special ambassadors to a “troubled” Hollywood.
“They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood.”
