US President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Patrick Tate Adamiak, a former Navy master-at-arms who was serving a 20-year federal prison sentence over the possession and sale of unregistered weapons.
Adamiak was convicted in federal court in 2023 after an undercover purchase by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Prosecutors said an ATF source bought eight machine guns from his online business, Black Dog Arsenal, between October 2021 and April 2022.
Authorities also reported finding 25 unregistered firearms, two grenade launchers and two antitank missile launchers in connection with the case.
Adamiak, however, maintained that the items were not functional weapons. He argued that some were demilitarised items or replicas he had collected since childhood and insisted that the parts he sold were legal.
“I spent four years in prison for items that are not firearms that were treated as firearms,” Adamiak, who joined the Navy in 2012 and served for more than 11 years, told The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
“We’re talking out in the open, transaction records, photos of the items paid to me in my actual personal name or the name of my business sent directly to my home address because it was a home-based business,” he added.
Adamiak’s pardon was one of 30 clemency actions Trump issued on September 4. The President has previously used his pardon powers to grant relief to both military personnel and civilians.
In May 2025, Trump pardoned former Army 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw, who had been convicted by court-martial in 2022 for disobeying orders related to COVID-19 safety measures.
“I just received a presidential pardon from President Donald J. Trump,” Bashaw said on social media at the time. “I am humbled, grateful, and ready to continue fighting for truth and justice in this great nation.”
Trump’s approach to presidential clemency has attracted criticism from legal experts and Democrats, who have argued that White House-led pardons that bypass traditional Department of Justice screening could weaken the rule of law.
Some of Trump’s other pardons, including those granted to individuals involved in the January 2021 Capitol riots, have also generated controversy.
Adamiak had challenged his conviction through the courts before receiving the pardon. Earlier this year, he appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which dismissed one count on double-jeopardy grounds but rejected his other arguments.
He subsequently asked the US Supreme Court to review the case in May, but the court declined to take it up.
According to the Second Amendment Foundation, Adamiak enlisted in the Navy at 17 and eventually rose to E-6 Master-at-Arms. He holds a bachelor’s degree and was pursuing a master’s degree before his arrest.
He was also reportedly on a path towards receiving an officer’s commission within Naval Special Warfare.
Following Trump’s intervention, Adamiak described the pardon as “an act of a correction of judicial error.”
The National Rifle Association also welcomed the President’s decision, describing Adamiak as a Navy veteran who had collected inert relics, replicas and training devices rather than functional firearms.
“The National Rifle Association welcomes President Donald J. Trump’s pardon of Navy veteran Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak,” the organisation announced September 4. “He served honorably and collected inert relics, replicas, and training devices—not functional firearms—yet received a 20-year sentence under aggressive Biden-era ATF overreach.”
Now free from prison and living in Virginia Beach, Adamiak said he was considering returning to military service.
