US President Donald Trump pardoned two Alaska diesel mechanics at a campaign rally in Wasilla on Tuesday after inviting them onstage to sign their clemency documents.
“They wanted to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine, how sick,” Trump told the crowd, characterizing previous federal enforcement under former US President Joe Biden as unfair to workers dealing with extreme northern cold where emissions gear can strand vehicles.
The beneficiaries, Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming, co-owned Arm Rippin Toys, an Anchorage repair facility. Both men pleaded guilty in 2022 alongside a third partner, Michael Wayne Hanzuk, to federal charges of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act. Prosecutors argued that the business removed required emissions-control hardware and altered monitoring components on at least 37 diesel trucks between July 2019 and September 2020.
“This means the world to me,” Fleming said onstage, maintaining that the mechanics aimed to assist drivers.
The clemency comes after a policy shift announced by the US Justice Department in January confirming it will no longer seek criminal charges against individuals for diesel defeat-device tampering, restricting future enforcement solely to civil penalties.