Alice Marie Johnson highlights second chances, including clemency for Navy veteran Patrick Tate Adamiak and others whose cases were reviewed by the White House
President Donald Trump granted clemency this week to 30 people, White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson said Friday.
“Yesterday was a powerful day for second chances,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.
She thanked Trump “for granting clemency and pardons to 30 deserving individuals whose cases we carefully reviewed and brought forward.” Johnson also thanked the White House Counsel team, led by Will Scharf.
Among those Johnson highlighted was Emory Jones, who she said served nearly 16 years in federal prison before becoming an entrepreneur. She also named women identified through clemency clinics, including Molly Ann Bloom, Holly Leanne Frantzen, and Shemika Williams.
“My prayer is that each of these 30 people makes the most of this extraordinary second chance and becomes a greater blessing to their families, communities and the world,” Johnson said.
Among those granted clemency was Patrick Tate Adamiak, according to the Second Amendment Foundation. Adamiak is a Navy veteran who had been serving a 20-year sentence following a 2022 federal firearms conviction brought during the Biden administration.
A former Master-at-Arms first-class petty officer and one-time Navy SEAL candidate, Adamiak has said he collected military memorabilia and sold parts and replicas while keeping complete firearms and never selling them.
On April 7, 2022, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) raided his properties. Prosecutors said they seized unregistered firearms, machine guns, and destructive devices.
A jury convicted Adamiak on Oct. 21, 2022, of receiving and possessing an unregistered firearm, unlawful possession and transfer of a machine gun, and three counts of receiving and possessing a destructive device. The court imposed 20-year terms on each count, with the first two running consecutively.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later held that the first two counts constituted the same offense and violated the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause. The court ordered one count dropped and directed that Adamiak be resentenced.
Retired ATF special agent Dan O’Kelly, who was prepared to testify as a defense expert, said the frames and receivers seized from Adamiak did not meet the definition of a firearm that applied at the time of the raid. After April 2022, the ATF changed that definition.
Six members of Congress—Reps. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), and Rob Bresnahan Jr. (R-Penn.)—wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche, pardon attorney Edward J. Martin, and ATF Director Robert Cekada seeking clemency for Adamiak.
They described the 20-year sentence as “an exceptionally severe outcome for a nonviolent case centered on regulatory interpretation rather than harmful conduct.”
Johnson described the broader clemency effort as justice work.
“This work is both challenging and important. But ultimately, it is justice work—and, for me, Jesus work,” she wrote. “To God be the glory.”
