A re-sentencing hearing for Patrick "Tate" Adamiak, who's currently four years into a 20-year sentence for allegedly selling NFA items without a license, has been abruptly canceled by a federal judge in Virginia, who says the Navy veteran was trying to bring up arguments that have previously been rejected by the courts, including the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Second Amendment Foundation investigative journalist Lee Williams was the first to report on the cancellation and the excuse offered by U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen.
Federal judge cancels Adamiak’s resentencing hearing.
— Lee Williams (@HT_GunWriter) June 22, 2026
Adamiak's family does not know what will happen next.
Patrick “Tate” Adamiak will not get a new hearing, during which he would finally have had the opportunity to introduce evidence as to his innocence.
Arenda L. Wright… pic.twitter.com/IJcNSH67ka
In her written order, the judge wrote “his objections were previously addressed at his sentencing hearing and affirmed by the Fourth Circuit and cannot be re-raised at this resentencing hearing.”
“Accordingly, the Court is precluded from considering, and will not hear, any evidence or argument on the objections at the resentencing hearing,” Judge Wright Allen wrote.
The move stunned Adamiak, his friends and his father.
“We are disappointed to a certain degree because this case involved lies and tampering with evidence, and now they’re not allowing it to come out. They’re still trying to protect [ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrery] Bodell, who was involved in the case. He actually lied to the judge, lied to the jury and did not show the proper evidence. This case involved perjury and tampering with evidence by the ATF. You can’t have a fair trial if the government is not telling the truth. That’s the bottom line. We just want the truth to come out, not a fabricated case, which you can never win,” said Dave Adamiak.
Adamiak remains at a federal holding facility where he was taken for the cancelled hearing. He was not available for comment.
Even ATF Director Robert Cekada, who maintains that Adamiak was properly convicted, has called out the 20-year sentence he received. In an interview with Bearing Arms Cam & Company, Cekada said that, in his experience, individuals without a criminal history who were convicted on similar charges received far less time behind bars than the 20 years Adamiak was sentenced to serve.
In addition to trying to lessen Adamiak's sentence, his attorneys have also requested a full pardon by President Donald Trump. To date, however, the president hasn't commented on Adamiak's case, and a full pardon or even a commutation of his sentence remains in limbo.
Adamiak has maintained that he never possessed or sold any machine guns or other NFA items, but the ATF essentially re-built a replica Mark 19 grenade launcher and a replica M240 machinegun to make them functional firearms in order to convict him.
All of the counts against him were almost laughable. None made any legal sense.
- Counts 1 and 2 concerned the PPSh-41 receiver, which is not a firearm under current federal law.
- Counts 3 and 4 concerned his M203 and M79, which are Title 1 firearms that were legally transferred by an FFL. Neither had a 40mm barrel affixed. Adamiak had 37mm barrels for both, which are legal and not subject to National Firearms Act (NFA) regulation.
- Count 5 concerned two inert RPGs, which were missing all of the parts to make them functional and had holes drilled directly into their chambers.
“My lawyers said that they were almost happy that I was charged with these RPGs because it was so ridiculous that it would damage the ATF’s creditability and made the jury question their logic,” Adamiak said. “Unfortunately, the ATF decided to take my inert RPGs to their lab, completely rebuild them with components off one of their own real RPGs and demonstrate that they would work by shooting a .30 caliber training round in a self-contained firing mechanism. They essentially inserted a bolt-action rifle into the tube that looks like a rocket, fired one shot, and then said it’s a destructive device.”
Throughout the trial, the ATF’s attorneys showed jurors pictures of Adamiak’s extensive personal collection, including random parts, barrel shrouds and MAC-10 flats.
“They told the jury these were all machineguns,” he said. “The worst was the M240. They displayed a photo of the ATF case agent holding the belt-fed M240 replica and testified that it was a machinegun, and also made filings saying the same thing, despite the fact that the ATF’s own report says it’s a replica and not a firearm at all.”
Adamiak obtained new counsel after his conviction, and if this information really wasn't rebutted at trial then it's ridiculous that he's not being allowed to present it during his sentencing re-hearing.
At this point it's not clear if a re-sentencing hearing will be held at some point in the future, or if Adamiak is simply stuck with his 20-year sentence until or unless President Trump intervenes. I can only hope that a pardon is already in the works, because every day that Patrick "Tate" Adamiak remains behind bars is an injustice.
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