Fired Justice Dept. official speaks out on her ouster and Mel Gibson; The Washington Post, March 12, 2025

Perry Stein , The Washington Post; Fired Justice Dept. official speaks out on her ouster and Mel Gibson

"Oyer said her office was asked to identify suitable candidates. She sifted through people who had applied for pardons and whom her office had already vetted, then crafted a list of 95 individuals who had committed relatively nonviolent crimes at least 20 years ago and had demonstrated exemplary conduct since serving their punishments.

Justice Department leaders whittled that list down to nine people, Oyer said, and she was asked to send a memo to Bondi explaining why those people should have their gun rights restored.

“I was comfortable doing that with those cases because I had a great deal of information on those nine people and had already recommended that they were suitable candidates for a presidential pardon,” Oyer toldMSNBC.

But after Oyer drafted the memo, she was asked to add Gibson to the list of nine people. She said Gibson had not applied for a pardon or been vetted through her office and, as someone with a domestic violence conviction, she did not believe he met the criteria to have his gun rights restored.

Oyer said security escorted her from her office hours after she refused to add Gibson’s name to the list."

The Thorny Ethics of the Oscars; New Yorker, 12/21/16

Michael Schulman, New Yorker; The Thorny Ethics of the Oscars:

"It seems impossible, and misguided, to demand an ethical CAT scan for everyone who’s nominated for an Oscar. Not long ago, I had lunch with an Academy member who had been busily attending screenings. When I asked whether the Affleck story would color his vote, he said anxiously, “I just don’t know.” Each Artist vs. Art case is complicated—less a one-to-one ratio than a quadratic equation—but, at some point, Academy members will be faced with a list of five names and a choice to make. What if it’s between Affleck and Denzel Washington for Best Actor, and you think Washington’s a great guy but Affleck gave the better performance? Forget the rabbi: each Oscar voter is now his or her own Solomon the Wise."