Patrick “Tate” Adamiak savors the peace and quiet of life outside of federal prison. He says that for almost five years, he lived with the constant noise, confusion, and uncertainty of prison while serving a 20-year sentence for violating the National Firearms Act.
On Sept. 3, President Donald Trump granted the Navy veteran executive clemency, releasing him from prison and restoring his constitutional rights.
“President Trump stands for the Second Amendment and will not deny honorable veterans like Mr. Adamiak his constitutional rights,” a White House spokesperson stated to The Epoch Times in an email.
Patrick "Tate" Adamiak at his home in Virginia Beach, Va., on Sept. 21, 2026. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)
Adamiak, his family, friends, attorneys, and others believed the U.S. Navy veteran was wrongly charged and convicted under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF’s) zero-tolerance policy implemented during the Biden administration.
Trump agreed.
Adamiak said that in his case, government experts used their credentials to convince jurors that non-functioning replica firearms, inert military objects, and items that don’t meet the legal definition of a firearm were actually that.
He believes prosecutors are focused on winning, regardless of whether justice is served.
“I would say I’ve completely lost faith in the justice system and the legal system, and I don’t think it’s truly about justice,” Adamiak said.
Adamiak’s legal odyssey began with a confidential tip to the ATF in October 2021.
At that time, he was in the U.S. Navy hoping to become a SEAL. He owned two homes, was in a serious relationship, and collected military history artifacts.
According to court records, an informant told ATF special agent William Hairston Jr., that Adamiak possessed prohibited items. Adamiak didn’t know the ATF had set its sights on him until agents raided both of his properties and seized much of his collection on April 7, 2022.
The ATF reported seizing illegal firearms, including machine guns, and destructive devices during the raid. Adamiak has steadfastly denied having any illegal items in his collection.
Adamiak said he didn’t want to go to the trouble of maintaining a federal firearms license. So he only collected non-firing replica weapons.
Special agent Daniel Beasley described how he altered Adamiak’s non-firing replica STEN machine gun to fire live ammunition, in a report in the court file.
The STEN is a World War II-era submachine gun popular with history buffs because of its use by the Allies against Nazi Germany. Adamiak’s replica had no firing mechanism, no working barrel, and no ability to accept a magazine.
Beasley had to install a firing mechanism and a real STEN barrel and then wrap part of the barrel in electrical tape to fire a single round, he stated in his report.
Calum Welch, one of Adamiak’s lawyers, said the ATF appeared to have investigated crimes that Adamiak could have committed.
“That just attributes conduct he didn’t commit, intent he didn’t have, and items he didn’t possess,” Welch told The Epoch Times.
Adamiak was convicted on Oct. 21, 2022. Over the next four years, as his case ground on through the legal system, the Navy veteran spent most of his time in the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey. The federal prison is part of the Army base first opened in 1917.
He admits to being apprehensive as he walked into the medium-security prison on his first day. He had never been in trouble with the law, and his impressions of prison were formed mostly by television and movies.
Adamiak believes his military training and the ability to mind his own business kept him from having to fight, though there were close calls—like the night he was awakened by a drug-addled prisoner trying to steal the snacks Adamiak had bought from the prison commissary.
As he confronted him, the would-be snack thief pulled an improvised knife, commonly called a shank.
“We had a conversation, and I tried to just kind of put in perspective, like, ‘You’re gonna stab somebody over a bag of chips, really?’” Adamiak said.
Eventually, the man put his knife away, and Adamiak shared a bag of chips with him as a gesture of goodwill.
Lee Williams, one of Adamiak’s most vocal champions, heads up the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. After reviewing the court records and talking with people familiar with the case, he took up Adamiak’s cause.
He had an especially harsh critique of the ATF’s investigation.
“After I read the absolute lies—there is no other word that suffices—that the ATF said about what they found in his home, I could not stop. He was an innocent man behind bars,” Williams stated in an email to The Epoch Times.
“Now that he’s a free man, I could not be happier.”
—Michael Clements; Stacy Robinson
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—Stacy Robinson
