Former pardon attorney Liz Oyer: A 'five-alarm fire' at the Department of Justice

By Sheilah Kast,

Melissa Gerr

Published September 26, 2025 at 10:02 AM EDT

Former US Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer was fired in March, 2025 and since has amassed a following on Instagram, Tik Tok and Substack where she deciphers some of the legal and court-related actions by the Trump Administration. Photos: @LawyerOyer on Instagram

If you find “Lawyer Oyer” on TikTok or Instagram, the voice is calm and the demeanor steady. It can feel like a 3-minute tutorial on the law. But listen, and you realize it’s not at all passive.
Before Liz Oyer was in charge of pardons at the U.S. Department of Justice, she was a federal public defender in Maryland for ten years. She was fired by the Trump administration six months ago, and started posting as Lawyer Oyer in April. We ask her about the 'Five-Alarm Fire' at the justice department, and more.

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Sheilah Kast

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.

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Melissa Gerr

Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'

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