Trump announces pardons for pollution violators prosecuted for “fixing their car”
President Trump announced Friday that he was granting pardons to six people who he said were wrongfully prosecuted by federal prosecutors for “fixing their cars,” an act he described as “using a gun and stupidity.”
Trump: “I’M RELEASE THEM ALL NOW!” he wrote. Sharing on Truth Social.
The White House did not immediately provide a list of the names of the six pardoned defendants, but attorney Stewart Cables and lobbyist Jeff Daugherty, who represent five of the six, introduced them to CBS News. Ryan and Wade Lalone said Matt Geouge, Tim Clancy and Mac Spurlock received presidential pardons.
“Thank God for putting it in Trump’s heart to approve these pardons, and thank God for Donald Trump,” Daugherty told CBS News. Mr. Trump, he said, “is the only president who deals with these parties, and that’s because he’s the only president who has faced such brutal proliferation.”
The White House informed Daugherty and Cables about the pardon.
In the early hours of Friday, CBS News He was the first to report that Mr. Trump plans to pardon defendants prosecuted for tampering with air pollution control equipment in vehicles, in violation of the Clean Air Act.
The pardons come after Mr. Trump last fall granted clemency to Troy Lake, a Wyoming mechanic who was sentenced to seven months in prison for violating federal emissions laws by disabling air pollution control equipment on diesel engines.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice instructed prosecutors to: drop all ongoing prosecutions and investigations into so-called aftermarket defeat devices used to bypass emissions controls.
