By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
Georgia gunsmith and technical specialist Len Savage is an expert witness who has been involved in 29 federal court cases over a 20-year span.
He has been hired by defense attorneys, federal public defenders and sometimes the U.S. Department of Justice, which last asked him to verify government testing at $175 per hour.
Savage’s firm, Historic Arms, LLC, is a leading source for semi-auto Bren light machineguns and other unique items, and he also repairs full-auto weapons.
“I haven’t had to testify in many, many years,” he said. “The last time I was summoned to examine the government’s evidence they dismissed the case.”
Savage has closely followed the ATF’s treatment of Patrick “Tate” Adamiak.
“I am familiar with Tate’s case and I have even spoken to him,” Savage said Monday. “Was this a legit charge? Nope. The was part of Joe Biden’s anti-gun agenda. They were going after everything during that time period. They went after pistol braces—they went after everything you can imagine.”
Adamiak is just starting the third year of his 20-year federal prison sentence. A series of more than 30 stories revealed that none of the charges he faced were based on any actual violations. All were made up by the ATF.
Savage believes the ATF went after Adamiak because he did not have a Federal Firearm License, or FFL.
“Tate was legal but they didn’t like it,” he said. “If he would have had an FFL, they would have visited him every 365 days. The ATF wanted to send a message out to people saying, “Don’t play in this area or we’ll mess you up.’”
He believes President Donald Trump should fix ATF’s screwup as soon as possible.
“He needs to be pardoned. The president should take a look at him and ATF’s alleged testing procedures,” Savage said. “Keep in mind ATF didn’t even have testing until a couple years ago. This case should proceed to court without delay.”
The only thing the ATF proved during Adamiak’s trial, Savage said, is that the agency is capable of gunsmithing.
“The only thing they’ve established is that ATF’s technical division knows how to make a firearm, and you can make a firearm out of anything,” he said. “The only thing the ATF established in his case was that their people had a gunsmith’s level of skill.”
During Adamiak’s case, Savage said, all the ATF did was employ a bunch of “parlor tricks.”
“These poor juries get tricked. You get someone coming out in a nice suit, saying ‘look at my accomplishments.’ It’s all literally a parlor trick, and not even a good one,” he said. “This was all stuff they had stopped doing, because they really got their asses handed to them in the past. The tricks they used on Adamiak were not new, but they were new to the people they recently hired.”
One of ATF’s previous senior technicians, Savage said, was caught lying under oath during a criminal trial.
“But then the new crew comes in and don’t know that it’s all been done before,” he said.
If an ATF agent decides to tell the truth and testify factually about what happened, their career can be at risk.
“If they speak out, they’ll be sent to work nights, or to Guam, or to Nome, Alaska,” he said.
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