By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
United States Congressman Rob Bresnahan is a young newly elected Republican serving Pennsylvania’s Eighth Congressional District, which is located in the northeastern portion of the state and includes Patrick Tate Adamiak’s home where his father lives.
Bresnahan is the CEO of a construction company with 150 employees. According to his bio, the Congressman lives with his wife Chelsea and a cat named Blue.
Last week, Congressman Bresnahan’s staffers refused to allow him to be interviewed about Patrick Tate Adamiak, the weeks of “Diesel Therapy” he was recently saved from, or the 50-plus stories we’ve written about his wrongful prosecution, conviction and imprisonment.
Just minutes after killing the interview, Bresnahan’s staffers immediately called Adamiak’s father and questioned him once again about his son’s plight. The Congressman’s staffers have been talking to him for months but have done nothing substantive.
“We have been trying to get them on board for a long time. I first spoke to one staffer who blew me off. Basically, they said they don’t want to get involved with legal cases,” Dave Adamiak said Monday. “I was shocked and a little aggravated being a constituent that they can’t help in any way. A few weeks later, I was in touch with a different staffer. He was a little more responsive and said he’d get back to us. He never did. When you posted the tweet that’s when I got another call. He claimed it had nothing to do with the tweet.”
Late Monday afternoon, Congressman Bresnahan’s communications director, Hannah Pope called and said, “We are looking into this issue.”
She still would not allow her boss to be interviewed, saying “We’re still looking into this. Try checking back in a few weeks.”
Congressman Bresnahan did not respond to interview requests.
Here’s the tweet Dave Adamiak referred to:
As of Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to Adamiak’s case, the role any federal or state lawmaker can take to help the 38-year-old former active-duty sailor became even more important.
Pennsylvania State Senator Lisa Baker is running for re-election to represent District 20. Another Republican, her current term ends in November.
Baker, who served as deputy chief of staff for two former Republican governors, did not respond to calls or emails seeking her comments about Adamiak’s plight, but her opponent did.
Tyler Meyers describes himself as Christian, a conservative Republican and a U.S. Army veteran, who was born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Both he and his daughter appreciate guns and are strongly opposed to what happened to Adamiak.
“Tate was arrested for selling gun parts, but the ATF couldn’t actually pin any type of crime on him, so they manufactured charges against him, got him convicted and then sentenced to 20 years in prison,” Meyers said Monday. “Even though the current ATF Director seems opposed to it, it’s ridiculous Tate’s still in prison. There are groups trying to get him out, but they were told he’d be home by Christmas. My opponent, Lisa Baker, is supposedly a ‘Second Amendment champion,’ but she’s been silent on this issue. I heard the story about Tate a long time ago. It’s insane this has been allowed to get this far.”
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