The Adamiak Saga Keeps Looking Worse for ATF

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was a petty officer 1st class in the Navy, a Master-at-Arms even. That’s the Navy’s specifically trained cops, as opposed to those who get tapped for shore patrol duty from other job fields. He knew the law, and he was on his way to becoming a Navy SEAL, where he’d have access to a virtual cornucopia of firearms he could shoot on a regular basis, using the taxpayers’ money to fund the ammo requirements under the heading of “training.”

And then it all crashed in on him.

We’ve talked about the Adamiak case a great deal. It’s something that’s a sore point for me, in part because I’m a Navy veteran and partly because I wrote about his conviction and, like an idiot, just accepted the official word as gospel.

But every so often, Lee Williams at The Gun Writer–who has done incredible work bringing Adamiak’s case to light–drops a new nugget that just looks worse for the ATF.

Today was one of those days.

It’s not difficult to gauge the ATF’s intent after their arrest of Patrick “Tate” Adamiak. Their agents’ actions and the false evidence they presented in court—under oath—speak louder than words.

It’s also not difficult to understand why the ATF presented nothing but false evidence during Adamiak’s trial. The government had nothing but false evidence. Adamiak, who was an active-duty Navy E-6, had always been extremely careful about the gun parts he bought and sold on his personal website.

We have examined almost every single major evidentiary item and charge the ATF made against the young sailor. The last items are four unfinished, completely stripped 80% side plates for a belt-fed M240 machinegun. Adamiak bought them at a good price over the internet. He did not need to fill out any forms or paperwork since the parts were not complete. Legally, they were merely unfinished pieces of metal.

“I legally purchased these plates from a legitimate business as unfinished, partially machined parts with no FFL required. I never attempted to complete them, they were never assembled, and they had no other parts with them. They are merely pieces of plate steel cut into the shape of M240 sides. They are only about at thick as the zip-tie holding them together. They were not for sale, and were just random parts in my collection,” Adamiak said last week.

…

The last fake charge involved the four 80% machinegun side plates, which ATF’s expert witness, Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell, claimed were four machineguns. Bodell was hired in November 2020. Adamiak’s trial, which was held two years later, was the first time Bodell ever testified in court.

Here’s a photograph of the plates.

Now, do those look like an operational receiver?

What’s more, the ATF agent that was responsible for “evaluating” these plates argued that since there were two right-side plates and two left-side plates–and absolutely none of the other parts required to make this a functioning receiver–that Adamiak had four machine guns.

Yes, that’s insane. As Adamiak notes, “[T]his would be like saying possessing the driver’s side and passenger side door of a car is equivalent to possessing two entire cars.”

He ain’t wrong.

Further, Adamiak argues that the rule applied to his case wasn’t in place until four month after his arrest.

Adamiak believes that Bodell’s last comment reveals that he used a new ATF rule, C.F.R 478.12, which was not put into effect until four months after Adamiak’s arrest.

“My parts were all evaluated under ATF interpretations of laws that were not published until August 2022. I was arrested in April 2022,” Adamiak said.

Considering how Bodell handled everything else, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Look, when you evaluate everything that the ATF used against Adamiak–and I mean look at their own evidence photos, among other things–it’s clear that Tate Adamiak is as innocent as they come. Literally nothing they charged him with was legitimate. From the RPG they called a destructive device that wasn’t a working weapon at all to the numerous “machine guns” that were nothing of the sort, the ATF screwed this young man over completely.

This isn’t right.

Nothing about this is right.

When people ask why so many gun owners despise the ATF, it’s stuff like this.

I mean, as bad as Ruby Ridge was, Randy Weaver did at least cut the shotgun barrel too short. It was entrapment, and that’s why he walked, but that still happened. The Branch Davidians in Waco probably made some illegal guns along the way, too. None of that warrants what happened in either case, but at least there was a germ of truth apparently hidden somewhere in the scandal.

With Adamiak, there’s none of that. There’s not a single glimmer of a legitimate crime anywhere to be found.

Instead, we have a relatively new agent–Bodell had been with the bureau just two years when he testified at Adamiak’s trial–and seems to have been eager to get a name for himself. So, it seems he lied about literally everything.

Tate Adamiak needs to be a free man. He needs to be a free man not today or tomorrow, but yesterday.

And Bodell should be flipping burgers for a living instead of serving as a federal agent.