President Trump pardoned a former sailor who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for possessing and selling unregistered machine guns.
The pardon came after years of advocacy by gun groups, which argued that Patrick Tate Adamiak was “wrongfully” convicted by a federal jury in 2022.
Lee Williams, who heads a journalism project funded by the Second Amendment Foundation, or SAF, has written more than 60 articles about Adamiak’s case and argued that he was wrongfully prosecuted.
According to the SAF’s reporting, Adamiak enlisted in the Navy in 2012. When he was arrested, he was an E-6 Master-at-Arms and one of the top 500 sellers on Gun Broker.
Williams said Adamiak “never committed a single crime” because he “never sold a single real firearm” and accused federal agents of targeting Adamiak personally and lying under oath about the case.
However, the jury convicted Adamiak, and an appellate court rejected most of his challenges to the conviction. A presidential pardon does not erase the underlying conviction or expunge a criminal record.
According to court documents, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, began investigating Adamiak in 2021 after receiving a tip from a confidential informant.
Between October 2021 and April 2022, prosecutors contend that Adamiak illegally sold to the CI seven machine gun receivers and a PPSh machine gun. Afterward, ATF agents executed a search warrant at his house, where they recovered 25 additional unregistered machine guns as well as two grenade launchers and two anti-tank missile launchers.
Prosecutors also said agents recovered invoices and schematics that detailed Adamiak’s illegal manufacturing of machine gun receivers as well as Adamiak’s phone, which contained messages with sources of machine gun parts.
One source, according to court documents, was a fellow sailor who allegedly straw-purchased gun parts for Adamiak and sold him items stolen from the Navy as well.
Trump pardoned Adamiak on Sept. 3 along with 22 others. According to the SAF, Adamiak plans to continue his legal fight to overturn his conviction.
Daniel Terrill is a contributor to Military Times. He’s been reporting on military issues, the gun industry, and the outdoors for nearly two decades. Although writing is his passion, he’s been a Marine, police officer, and, perhaps the most dangerous job of his career, a substitute teacher.