Trump pardons diesel mechanics for Clean Air Act violations at Alaska rally

President Trump issued pardons at a campaign rally in Alaska on Tuesday for two diesel mechanics who were previously charged with and plead guilty to violating the Clean Air Act.

The president signed the pardons for Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming on stage at the campaign event in Wasilla after he invited then up on stage.

“They wanted to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine, how sick,” Trump said.

“The concept is that if you allow people to fix the engines, they’re going to take all of the environmental crap that makes it bad, makes it expensive, that they’re going to do undo that. And when you undo that, you therefore send fumes into the air, so we’re going to put them in jail for ten years,” he continued.

Czubak and Fleming each plead guilty in 2022 to federal charges that they violated the Clean Air Act by illegally tampering with equipment and removed equipment meant to control air pollution.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, federal prosecutors said the two men and along with Michael Wayne Hanzuk tampered with and removed emission controls from at least 37 vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020.

“This means the world to me,” Fleming said on stage. “We’re not criminals. We’re not trying to hurt anybody. We want to help Alaskans. We want to help people with diesel trucks, with vehicles across the world.”

Trump previously pardoned nine convicted of similar Clean Air Act violations in July for what a White House official described as overzealous enforcement by previous administrations.