US marshals were mobilized to warn fired DOJ lawyer over congressional testimony, attorney says

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department dispatched armed U.S. marshals to deliver a letter warning a fired career pardon attorney about testifying to congressional Democrats, her lawyer said in a letter seen by Reuters on Monday.

“This highly unusual step of directing armed law enforcement officers to the home of a former Department of Justice employee who has engaged in no misconduct, let alone criminal conduct, simply to deliver a letter, is both unprecedented and completely inappropriate,” Michael Bromwich, a lawyer representing fired pardon attorney Liz Oyer, wrote to the Justice Department.

The Marshals were called off on Friday only after Oyer acknowledged receiving the letter, once she located it in a secondary email that she had not been using to communicate with the department's human resources officials, Bromwich wrote.

While U.S. Marshals deputies are sometimes used to serve congressional subpoenas or protect witnesses, dispatching them to deliver a letter from the Justice Department is unusual, one former official said.

A Justice Department spokesman did not comment.

Oyer, who served as the pardon attorney during President Joe Biden's tenure, was one of several career officials fired by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on March 7.

Oyer has since told U.S. media outlets that her firing came shortly after she declined to recommend restoring gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump.

She was one of several Justice Department officials who testified on Monday afternoon before a hearing organized by Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate about the Trump administration's treatment of the Justice Department and law firms who act in cases disliked by the Republican president.

"I was in the car with my husband and my parents... when I got the news that the officers were on their way to my house where my teenage child was home alone," Oyer told lawmakers.

"Fortunately, due to the grace of a very decent person who understood how upsetting this would be to my family, I was able to confirm receipt of the letter to an email address, and the deputies were called off."

DEMOCRATS BLAST MOVE

Democratic U.S. Senator Adam Schiff of California called the mobilization of the Marshals to deliver a letter an effort to "intimidate and silence" Oyer, while U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland compared it to a move "ripped straight from the gangster playbook."

In the letter to Oyer, Associate Deputy Attorney General Kendra Wharton said the department has "significant confidentiality interests."

These were particularly strong in Oyer's case because of the role Oyer played in making clemency recommendations for the president, Wharton said, referring to the executive privilege doctrine that shields some presidential communications from disclosure to Congress.

"Should you choose to appear before Congress, the department expects that you will abide by your obligations under the law, Department policy, and the applicable rules of professional responsibility," Wharton wrote.

"Those matters include the deliberative processes that underlie pardons, clemency, the restoration of firearm rights, and related decisions."

Bromwich, in his letter to Blanche, said the claim that Oyer's testimony is barred by executive privilege is "baseless" and that she is entitled to certain legal protections for whistleblowers.

Oyer testified on Monday that the Justice Department's letter did not deter her from speaking the truth, saying, "I will not be bullied into concealing the ongoing corruption and abuse of power at the Department of Justice."

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone, Peter Graff and Bill Berkrot)