Former DOJ lawyer testified against Todd Blanche’s confirmation for attorney general. Then she says she started receiving death threats

Former Justice Department lawyer Liz Oyer said on a YouTube video she began receiving death threats after testifying in the Senate last week against the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general, according to a video she posted.

Oyer previously oversaw the DOJ’s pardon office before she was removed from her position last year. She has said she was fired for refusing to restore actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights following his 2011 misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, a claim the Trump administration denies.

Oyer served as a key witness urging senators to vote against confirming Blanche, who had sought to act as acting attorney general to limit further inquiry into the Epstein files and who drew criticism over an interview with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Oyer says Republican senators helped fuel the threats against her

“Hey everybody, I started getting death threats after I testified against Todd Blanche last week,” Oyer said in the YouTube video, showing images of messages she said contained expletives. Oyer attributed the threats to accusations made by Missouri’s Republican senators, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, and in conservative media, which she characterized as suggesting she was an ally to rapists and murderers.

At the Senate hearing, Schmitt and Hawley focused on President Joe Biden’s decision to commute most federal death sentences. The two senators cited specific examples of crimes committed by some death row prisoners in an effort to question Oyer’s credibility, an approach MS NOW described as similar to Hawley’s questioning of current Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing.

In her video, Oyer said her recommendation to reassess the cases of all 40 inmates on federal death row, 37 of whom Biden spared from execution, was consistent with the administration’s broader opposition to capital punishment. She also said claims that the commuted inmates would ever be released from prison were inaccurate.

Oyer added: “Biden campaigned on a promise to end the federal death penalty. In light of that promise, some people believe it would have been more principled for Biden to commute all 40 death sentences, not 37. That would have sent a clear message that the president was categorically rejecting the death penalty, not weighing the relative value of people’s lives.”

Hawley and a spokesperson for Schmitt continued their criticism of Oyer even after she posted about receiving death threats. In comments to the Columbia Missourian, Hawley said the “real victims” are people harmed by individuals who were spared from execution. A spokesperson for Schmitt said Oyer’s “disgraceful clemency recommendations ignored the victims’ families’ concerns.”

Blanche has been criticized by Epstein victims and their families. Separately, Blanche has also faced a challenge to investigate President Trump from California Governor Gavin Newsom’s top lawyer, amid ongoing federal scrutiny of Newsom’s office.

Hawley and Schmitt are both allies of President Trump, whose own clemency actions have included pardons for a number of January 6 defendants, some of whom have since been charged with new offenses after their release. According to MS NOW, Hawley raised a fist toward the crowd on January 6 before the Capitol riot began, and was later seen leaving the area.

Neither Hawley’s office nor Schmitt’s office has commented further beyond the statements included above. Readers following Blanche’s confirmation may also be interested in former clients’ malpractice and forgery claims that remain pending against him from his time in private practice.