(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump issued unconditional pardons Tuesday to Alaska diesel mechanics Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming during a campaign rally in Wasilla, according to Just the News. The men had pleaded guilty in 2022 to federal Clean Air Act violations involving changes to vehicle emissions equipment.
Trump invited Czubak and Fleming onto the stage before signing their pardons. The Hill reported that the men had faced charges over work involving diesel truck engines, with prosecutors alleging they had tampered with or removed emissions controls from vehicles.
“They wanted to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine, how sick,” Trump said.
Trump also criticized the regulations at issue, arguing that certain emissions equipment made vehicles more difficult and expensive to operate. “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.
Just the News reported that Trump extended relief beyond an earlier clemency action involving an Alaska diesel mechanic. In July, Trump pardoned Michael Wayne Hanzuk, a Wasilla mechanic convicted for modifying emissions systems on diesel engines used in Alaska’s extreme climate. Senator Dan Sullivan welcomed that earlier pardon and called the prosecution unjust in a press release back in July.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Czubak, Fleming, and Hanzuk altered or removed pollution control equipment from at least 37 vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020, according to The Hill’s account of reporting by the Anchorage Daily News. Czubak and Fleming each admitted violating the Clean Air Act through illegal equipment tampering.
Fleming expressed gratitude after Trump signed the paperwork. “This means the world to me,” Fleming said. “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.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
