Sovereign citizen guilty on 21 federal charges

Hours after he was arrested by federal agents, Timothy Pate laughed as he told a friend they had nothing on him.

On Thursday a jury in U.S. District Court determined the evidence gathered by federal investigators was more than enough to prove Pate committed 21 crimes when he filed bogus liens against seven public officials and tried to send five into involuntary bankruptcy.

Pate, who considers himself a sovereign citizen and one outside of government control, sat in a cell instead of attending any part of his federal trial. He was arrested in August 2018. The jury found him guilty of 16 counts of filing a false retaliatory lien against federal official, and five counts of false bankruptcy declaration.

Pate failed to file tax returns for 2011 through 2014. When he filed for 2015, he claimed that while he made no wages he was due a $2.75 million refund. The next year he claimed a $1.15 million refund, and for 2017 he claimed a $3.72 million refund.

When the IRS notified Pate he wouldn’t be getting a dime, but would be responsible for a $5,000 fine for each frivolous tax return he filed, Pate turned to the U.S. Tax Court. When he lost there, he turned to U.S. District in Augusta and sued the IRS tax commissioner. When he didn’t get his way, he began filing liens, $15 million, $33 million, and even $100 million against federal Magistrate Judge Brian Epps who presided over the pretrial issues in Pate’s lawsuit.

“He used these liens as weapons,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph McCool argued to the jury in his closing statement. The seven victims, including a former chief of staff for President Obama who also served four years as the Secretary of the Treasury, stood in Pate’s way of getting millions in tax refunds that he didn’t earn, McCool said.

In phone calls and an email message, Pate admitted he was using the liens as weapons, McCool said. And if filing liens against victims weren't enough, he filed petitions for involuntary bankruptcy against five of the victims knowing that he was lying that any of them owed him money.

But defense attorney Justin Maines asked the jury in his closing statement to see Pate as a man deluded with ridiculous ideas. In his mind, he wasn’t making false claims. He thought he was participating in the judicial process, Maines said. Pate had no idea how the system works and when he failed he became frustrated.

Part of public service is dealing with people like Pate who don’t understand how things work, Maines said. No one was actually harmed by Pate, he argued.

“He’s blaming the victims,” Assistant District Attorney Christopher Howard countered in the final closing statement. Having someone try to make you responsible for millions of dollars of debt isn’t part of public service, that’s why it is a federal crime, Howard said.

How, Howard asked, could Pate think that people he had never met let alone never lent money to, owed him millions of dollars. He asked the jury not to see Pate as a hapless, uneducated rube. Pate went to college, he knew the power of liens, Howard said.

“It’s time to tell Timothy Jermaine Pate that's enough,” Howard said.

Filing false retaliatory liens against federal officials is punishable by up to 10 years. False bankruptcy declarations is punishable by up to five years. After a pre-sentencing report is prepared, Judge R. Stan Baker will sentence Pate.