Trump Pardons Navy Veteran in Gun Case
PHOTO CAPTION: President Donald Trump, pictured in his official 2025 portrait, granted a full and unconditional pardon to Navy veteran Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, who had been serving a 20-year federal sentence in a machine-gun and destructive-device case. Photo by Daniel Torok.
President Donald Trump has granted a full and unconditional pardon to Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, a former U.S. Navy master-at-arms who was serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in a firearms case that became a cause célèbre among gun-rights advocates.
The pardon covers all offenses in United States v. Adamiak, the federal case that sent the Virginia Beach sailor to prison after prosecutors accused him of possessing and trafficking unregistered machine guns and possessing unregistered destructive devices. Adamiak was released Friday, Sept. 4, according to the Second Amendment Foundation and a copy of the clemency warrant published by his supporters.
Adamiak was a Navy master-at-arms when federal authorities arrested him in 2022.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, ATF agents investigated Adamiak between October 2021 and April 2022 after he allegedly sold unregistered machine guns online. Prosecutors said ATF purchased eight machine guns from him through a confidential source before executing a search warrant at his home.
Federal authorities said the search uncovered another 25 unregistered firearms along with two grenade launchers and two antitank missile launchers.
A jury convicted Adamiak in October 2022 of receiving, possessing and transferring unregistered machine guns and possessing four destructive devices. He was sentenced in June 2023 to 20 years in federal prison.
But nearly every major part of the government's characterization of those weapons has since been challenged by Adamiak and gun-rights organizations supporting him.
The Second Amendment Foundation has argued that several of the items prosecutors classified as firearms were actually demilitarized military collectibles, replicas, unfinished parts or nonfunctional devices that could legally be purchased in ordinary commerce. SAF has been particularly critical of the government's testing and classification of two RPG launchers and other items seized from Adamiak.
Federal prosecutors have strongly rejected that account.
In a June 2026 court filing, prosecutors called the narrative promoted by Adamiak and his supporters false and said the trial record showed he had been trafficking firearms capable of being readily used as machine guns.
The legal fight continued for years after his conviction.
The Fourth Circuit rejected Adamiak's challenge in October 2025, and his attorneys eventually asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. Gun-rights organizations including the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association filed briefs supporting Supreme Court review.
The Supreme Court declined to take the case on May 18, 2026.
Less than four months later, Trump intervened.
The clemency document published by Adamiak's supporters states that Trump granted him a “full and unconditional pardon” for the offenses in case 2:22-CR-47. SAF said Adamiak still had roughly 16 years remaining on his sentence when he was released.
A presidential pardon does not determine whether the evidence used at trial was correct or resolve the competing claims surrounding the firearms themselves. It removes the federal consequences of the convictions covered by the pardon.
Adamiak's supporters say he now intends to continue challenging how federal authorities handled his case and could seek reinstatement in the Navy.
The pardon lands at the intersection of several issues already drawing intense debate among veterans and gun owners: federal firearms enforcement, the legal definition of a machine gun, military collectibles and the punishment imposed on a sailor with no previous criminal record.
For Adamiak, however, the immediate result is much simpler.
After receiving a 20-year federal sentence in 2023, the former Navy sailor is out of prison.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice; U.S. Supreme Court; Second Amendment Foundation; presidential clemency warrant published by Freedom for Tate
(Source: OAF Nation)
