by Lee Williams
Joe Biden’s ATF didn’t care about the law. They didn’t care about right or wrong. They didn’t care about evidence or proper procedure or telling the truth while asking the court for a search warrant while under oath. They didn’t even care about what was legal. All they cared about was terrifying gun owners, splashy headlines and making arrests regardless of the law.
Guns are bad, Joe Biden’s ATF believed. This untruth was reinforced by a team of anti-gunners working inside the White House and by others whom they collaborated with outside of the public eye.
While Biden napped, his ATF hit hard. They lied, kicked down doors, seized personal property for no legitimate reason, and they even took an innocent man’s life. In other words, they killed a man solely because of their own piss-poor planning.
ATF’s new director, Rob Cekada, is a good man who tells the truth and understands guns and gun owners, but the task in front of him is massive. He will certainly need help to fix the horrors Biden’s ATF left on his plate. If he can make the fixes, he will become a hero. If he ignores them, he will become just another in a long line of milquetoast ATF leaders who weren’t up to the job.
Here’s where he should start.
What follows are five leftover cases from Joe Biden’s ATF that should never have happened. Every single one violates federal law.
Bryan Malinowski
Bryan Malinowski was a lifelong collector. As a child he started collecting coins, a hobby he carried into his adulthood. Several years ago, his father handed down his gun collection, which sparked Bryan’s interest in firearms. He became a gun collector and hobbyist.
At the time of his death, Bryan was the highest paid city employee in the city of Little Rock as the Executive Director of the Little Rock Airport, where he earned an annual salary of more than $260,000.
In March 2024, federal regulations did not require an individual seller to hold a Federal Firearms License (FFL) unless that individual’s principal objective in selling firearms was livelihood and profit.
Bryan did not believe that by selling at gun shows he was engaging in conduct “with the principal objective of livelihood and profit,” and therefore did not believe he needed an FFL to sell firearms at gun shows.
In December 2023, the ATF opened an investigation and began following Bryan to and from work and on the weekends, placing a tracker on his car, and surveilling his daily activities.
During the investigation, at least two agents acting undercover interacted with Bryan at a gun show in Arkansas. Bryan answered one of the undercover agent’s inquiries by noting that he was a private seller, meaning he believed he did not need an FFL.
During their investigation, ATF learned a lot about Bryan. They knew he worked in a secure environment at the airport, where guns were not allowed.
They knew he had lived a law-abiding life with no criminal history, that he lived at home with his wife and two dogs, and that they kept a very regular schedule.
Bryan had no reason to believe that he was under investigation for violating the law. He never received a letter of inquiry, audit, personal visit, or request for information from the ATF; nor did he ever receive a target or subject letter from the Department of Justice notifying him that he was under investigation.
On March 6, 2024, ATF Special Agent Troy Dillard obtained two federal search warrants, which authorized federal agents to search the Malinowski home and Bryan’s vehicle for firearms, ammunition, electronics, sales records, and correspondence.
Importantly, it was not an arrest warrant. Nor did it set forth any facts that would lead any person to believe Mr. Malinowski would evade law enforcement, fail to cooperate, be dangerous, or pose a threat or risk of destroying evidence.
According to Special Agent Timothy Boles, the Arkansas ATF office is a small office, and “anytime anybody’s running an investigation, the other people know what’s going on.”
As lead investigator, Special Agent Troy Dillard drafted and submitted the ATF Operations Plan for the execution of the search warrant at the Malinowski home.
The Operations Plan was approved and signed by Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Clayton Merrill.
Nothing in the Operations Plan indicated Bryan posed a danger to himself or others, or that he was not expected to comply with law enforcement if he knew they were at his door.
The ATF agents including Agent Boles knew that Bryan did not pose a threat to their safety or the safety of others during the anticipated execution of the search warrant.
Specifically, ATF investigative officers would learn during their months long investigation leading up to Bryan’s death that Bryan did not pose an immediate threat to their safety or the safety of others during the search; that Bryan had no criminal history or history of violence; that Bryan had never threatened law enforcement officers; and that Bryan’s wife and dogs lived with him and would be present during a pre-dawn search warrant execution at the family home.
On the morning of March 19, 2024, the ATF agents on the entry team were all similarly dressed. They wore dark blue long-sleeved shirts, and any law enforcement insignia or identification on the front and back of their shirts were mostly or completely covered by their bulletproof vests.
Two agents wore tactical helmets without identifying insignia.
When the agents arrived at the Malinowski home before sunrise on March 19, 2024, their 10 vehicle caravan occupied the entirety of the cul-de-sac in front of the home.
It was still completely dark outside when agents arrived before 6:00 a.m.
The entry team was aware, or at least expected, that the Malinowski home had a video doorbell at the front door.
As agents approached the front door of the home, the first agent in the stack, Agent Bass, placed a piece of painter’s tape over the video doorbell camera, which was positioned just to the right of the front doors. This action disabled the camera and concealed the presence and identity of the armed team on the front porch.
The agents never rang the doorbell. Despite having Bryan Malinowski’s phone number and noting it in their Operations Plan, no one called to notify him of their presence.
No officer or agent attempted to announce their presence by using an electronic public announcement (PA) system, though the Operations Plan provided that a PA system would be used to announce their presence.
When forced entry is made and doors are rammed open, it is protocol at the Arkansas ATF office that agents automatically enter the home and execute a “limited penetration.” When executing a “limited penetration,” the person carrying the shield enters first.
In the process of breaking both sets of doors, the entry team became disorganized. According to Agent Sprinkles, “I think we were unprepared for the French doors.”
Bryan and his wife Maer, in bed in their room at the back of the house, never heard the police siren or any voices at their door.
Upon hearing loud banging at their front door and someone trying to get inside, Bryan scrambled out of the bed he shared with his wife. Their bedroom sat in the northwest corner of the house, down a hallway, past his home office, and a considerable distance from the home’s entryway.
Bryan quickly grabbed his handgun from the top drawer of his bedside table and went into the closet to retrieve a magazine. Mindful of his wife’s safety, Bryan motioned for his wife to stay back, pushing her down and out of the doorway.
Unbeknownst to Bryan, Maer refused to stay in the bedroom and followed him down the short hallway.
Bryan believed intruders were breaking into his home, and he was going to defend himself, his wife, and his home from the intruders.
Bryan fired his gun at the floor and hit one of the agents in the boot sole.
Agent Cowart, who entered second in the stack directly behind Agent Sprinkle, returned fire, pointing his rifle at Bryan’s head and pulling the trigger several times.
At 6:03:43 a.m., just 48 seconds after agents first approached his door to cover his doorbell, Bryan lay bleeding on the floor of his hallway, shot in the head.
Several ATF agents and task force officers who subsequently entered the Malinowski home noted that although Bryan laid on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head, they could hear him struggling to breathe, yet offered no medical assistance because of the nature and extent of the bullet wound.
Bryan died two days later. He was 53 years old.
Bryan’s widow, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the ATF and every agent who was at her home. The massive document clearly shows a host of serious errors ATF agents committed, all of which contributed to her husband’s death.
The saddest part is that if ATF agents hadn’t committed just one or two of a long list of substantial errors, Bryan would likely be alive today.
ATF is fighting the lawsuit.
Pastor Russell Fincher
Pastor Russell Fincher was a high school history teacher, a Baptist minister and a parttime gun dealer. He also coached Little League in his hometown of Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, which has a population of around 151 souls.
Fincher, 53, had a Federal Firearm License for three years. He had no brick-and-mortar gun shop. He was what used to be called a “kitchen table FFL.” He sold most of his firearms at gun shows, including Wanenmacher’s Arms Show in Tulsa, one of the country’s largest.
In April 2023, Fincher received a call from the ATF. They wanted to do an inspection at his home.
“I told them they were welcome anytime,” Fincher told me in July 2023.
Two ATF inspectors arrived a few days later. They spent three hours in his home. They took pictures of his 4473s with their cell phones, which Fincher later learned is an illegal although common practice.
“Honestly, they were way nicer than I expected,” he said back then. “They said I had some guns that had traces on them, which concerned them. It concerned me too.”
The inspectors returned two weeks later. They had some “concerns” involving Fincher’s penmanship, which they couldn’t read on a couple forms. They also found he had juxtaposed the model number of a firearm with the weapon’s serial number, which Fincher was attempting to rectify.
On June 16, 2023, Fincher and his son were packing for the gun show in Tulsa when the phone rang. It was the ATF. They said they wanted to talk to him before he left for the gun show.
“We can come out to your house,” he recalled the agent saying. “I told them sure; I’d be home.”
Seven vehicles roared up to his home and disgorged a dozen ATF agents wearing tactical gear, armed with AR-15s.
“It was like the Trump raid. They called me out onto my deck and handcuffed me. My son was there and saw the whole thing. He’s 13 years old,” Fincher said. “They held me on the porch for about an hour. I was surrounded by agents. One by one, they yelled at me about what I was doing. In my mind I decided if they were going to beat me up over every little thing, I’m done. As soon as I said, ‘If you want my FFL, you can have it,’ one of the agents pulled out a piece of paper and said, ‘Well then sign here.’ He had made three copies in case I screwed one up. It was exactly what they wanted. I was shocked.”
As soon as Fincher relinquished his Federal Firearm License, the ATF began loading up his guns, including a Colt Commander, five Glocks and a mint AK—a Polytech pre-ban milled under-folder, which is worth thousands of dollars.
“They took more than 50 of my personal guns,” Fincher said. “I asked them why, and they said they were ‘evidence.’ I’d estimate they took $50,000 to $60,000 worth of guns.”
After ATF’s SWAT team cleared Fincher’s home, they called the agent in charge of the raid—Special Agent Theodore Mongell—and told him it was “safe to come up.”
“You’re done. We have to shut you down,” Fincher recalled Mongell saying. “You tell all your FFL buddies we are coming for them. We are shutting the gun shows down.”
“One agent told me they hate home FFLs,” Fincher said. “He said if I wanted to sell a Browning shotgun to someone at a gun show with no paperwork, that’s no problem, but when I sell a Glock or an AR lower that’s a ‘gangbanger.’ I asked him where it said that in the regs. He said no gangbanger would be shooting people with a $2,000 Benelli. To me, that was one of the dumbest statements he could have made.”
A federal grand jury issued a three-count indictment charging Fincher with two felonies and one misdemeanor:
Count one: Engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license, a felony.
Count two: Selling ammunition to a prohibited person, a felony.
Count three: Making false entry in records by a federal firearms dealer, a misdemeanor.
Fincher was arrested, booked and released, subject to a $10,000 unsecured bond.
Fincher’s Federal Public Defender negotiated a plea agreement, in which Fincher would plead guilty to selling ammunition to a prohibited person, which is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the two remaining charges once Fincher signed the plea agreement.
The deal kept Fincher out of prison. Both sides agreed that three years of probation would be “the appropriate disposition of the case.” The plea agreement also specified that Fincher would not contest the forfeiture of 39 firearms.
He remains on probation, unable to possess or sell guns.
Patrick “Tate” Adamiak
Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, an active-duty Navy E-6, was arrested more than four years ago even though he never committed any crime. More than 40 law enforcement officers led by ATF agents kicked down his doors and ripped his home apart.
They found nothing illegal—not a thing—yet he’s serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.
If Joe Biden’s ATF had left him alone, Tate would likely be leading a SEAL platoon. He’d already been accepted to attend BUD/S.
It’s not just Adamiak or his friends and family who believe Joe Biden’s ATF was far too harsh in their treatment of the young active-duty sailor.
ATF Director Cekada does not believe Adamiak was treated fairly by either Biden’s ATF or the Justice Department.
Instead, Cekada believes Adamiak was massively over-sentenced.
“On the facts of this case, the sentence Mr. Adamiak received is excessive. Mr. Adamiak had no prior criminal history. He dealt with these weapons as curios. We have no evidence that he intended to use the weapons unlawfully or that he was part of a criminal organization. The extremely high sentencing guidelines likely reflect the paradigmatic cases of individuals possessing destructive devices, such as grenade launchers, and normally involve terrorism or organized criminal activity. No such conduct was present here. For me, unlawful possession of National Firearms Act items sentences approximately in the three-to-five-year range are common,” he said last week.
He could not be more correct.
One thing is certain, the judge who sentenced Adamiak to two decades behind bars doesn’t want to hear anything about the case or her decision.
Senior United States District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen recently cancelled Adamiak’s resentencing hearing. She also barred his attorneys from addressing any issues they have with his sentence, the ATF investigation or the case itself.
Adamiak was not available for comment. He has been moved so frequently lately we’re not even sure where he is at.
An 81-year-old man and a 75-year-old man
According to an ATF press release:
“Aubrey Foxworthy, 81, of California, Missouri, was charged with dealing firearms in Morgan and Moniteau Counties from approximately June 2, 2023, through September 9, 2024. He did not have a federal firearms license to deal firearms. Foxworthy was also charged with possession of a rifle with a barrel length less than 16 inches and that rifle was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record,” the press release states. “According to an indictment returned this week, Philip Leroy Rains, 75, of Popular Bluff, Missouri, was charged with dealing firearms in Morgan County from approximately April 1, 2023, through April 4, 2024. He did not have a federal firearms license to deal firearms.”
The ATF wanted 197 of Foxworthy’s personal firearms, according to a list attached to his indictment. The guns are about what you’d expect a lifelong gun owner to have in his safe. Almost all were American made: Ruger, Colt, Winchester, Savage, Browning, Remington, Marlin, Mossberg, Henry and Smith & Wesson. The ATF also wanted Foxworthy’s ammunition, and the list claimed he had more than 16,000 rounds.
Because the ATF prepared the list, there are four firearms identified as “machineguns,” but the type, manufacturer and calibers were listed as “unknown.” Also, Foxworthy was not charged with the illegal possession of any machineguns.
The list also shows that Foxworthy owned a dozen Winchester Model 94 rifles. The serial number of one rifle shows it was manufactured before 1896. Depriving the man of that rifle is almost a sin, especially since it will likely be kept or even resold by some nameless ATF agent.
Who hasn’t seen an old man at a flea market with a couple guns for sale either on a folding table or laying on a blanket in the bed of his pickup?
It’s classic Americana. There is certainly no crime or criminal intent.
Unfortunately, Joe Biden robbed us of this. Biden’s “engaged in the business” rule required anyone who made a profit on a single gun sale to obtain a federal firearm license.
Tom Harris
After an audit in 2022, the ATF asked Texas gun dealer Tom Harris some pointed questions about multiple firearms he sold to an individual.
“They put the squeeze on me, but I answered all their questions and gave them whatever they wanted,” Harris said at the time.
One of the ATF officials — Special Agent Aaron Loving — told Harris’ attorney he was cleared of any wrongdoing. Harris’ attorney documented this conversation in a letter.
“Agent Loving has informed me that you are no longer the target of any criminal investigation, and there will not be any criminal prosecutions forthcoming,” the letter states.
And then the ATF changed its mind.
A few months later, Special Agent Loving recontacted Harris’ attorney, stating “We need Tom to give up his license voluntarily. The bosses up the chain want him to turn in his license or face adverse actions,” Harris recalls his attorney saying.
“We thought this was all over,” Harris said.
In June 2023, Special Agent Loving and his partner personally served a Notice of Revocation to Harris, which contains two violations:
1. “On 10 occasions, Licensee willfully aided and abetted a non-licensee in dealing firearms without a license as required by the GCA…”
2. “On 46 occasions, Licensee willfully made a false statement or representation with respect to information required by the GCA …”
Harris learned that the individual to whom he sold the firearms was under investigation by the ATF.
“This individual was a customer of several FFLs,” Harris said. “The ATF had cleared me of any wrongdoing. They alleged I aided and abetted on 10 forms, but at the time the individual was actively being approved for his FFL. All of this was originally approved by the ATF.”
ATF put the smallest gun dealers—known as kitchen-table FFLs—through a special hell.
The vast majority of them “voluntarily” surrendered their FFLs after being threatened, like Pastor Fincher, with prison sentences.
Harris made the ATF take his FFL.
“In 2024, they would not renew my FFL,” Harris said this week. “The stuff they came up was all complete BS. The faces have changed.”
ATF’s Dallas DIO whose office was a mile from Harris’ home has moved on. The prosecutor retired. The ATF Special Agents have moved on.
Still, Harris is still waging a legal fight for the return on his FFL.
“I am stressed to the hilt,” he said. “The ATF is all gone. Their lawyers are all gone. I’m still waiting for the judge to give me a hearing on my FFL. Everything they did to me was crap.”
Harris said he has seen no changes since President Trump’s election.
“I’m not a gun dealer yet. I don’t know if I will be again. I’m just at my whit’s end,” he said. “The ATF has devastated me financially. I am a man of faith, but they really got me. I feel really let down by the DOJ and the Trump Administration.”
Takeaways
It must be difficult for current ATF agents to look back at the Biden years and point the finger at themselves. Their pride must be wounded. They must hope that the people whose lives they ruined will simply go away, but none are.
Instead, it is time for the ATF to do the right thing.
Settle with Harris, Foxworthy, Rains and Fincher. Renew their FFLs if that’s what they want, and return their firearms, including the dozen Winchester Model 94 rifles, especially the one that was manufactured before 1896.
Release Adamiak from his completely undeserved prison sentence. After all, he did nothing wrong.
And take care of Mrs. Malinowski. She does not need another court hearing.
That poor woman has been through enough.
