Trump Pardons Nine Diesel Mechanics Convicted of Rigging Truck Emissions Controls
The Fourth of July clemency wipes out convictions for selling 'defeat devices' that bypass federal pollution limits, with the president casting the men as victims 'persecuted by the Biden Administration.'
President Donald Trump marked the Fourth of July by pardoning nine people convicted of violating the Clean Air Act, all of them tied to the booming underground trade in diesel "defeat devices" — hardware and software that reprograms trucks to bypass federally mandated emissions controls.
The men, most of them diesel mechanics and performance tuners, had been prosecuted for selling and installing kits that switch off a vehicle's pollution-scrubbing systems and silence the dashboard warnings that follow. Without those controls, modified trucks belch far more nitrogen oxides and soot than federal law allows, but they also avoid the notorious "limp mode" that can throttle a malfunctioning diesel down to as little as 5 mph.
Among those pardoned was MacKenzie "Mac" Spurlock, an Alaska mechanic whose shop, Matanuska Diesel, was raided years ago by roughly 30 armed EPA agents — an episode Trump allies have held up as an example of regulatory overreach. Also on the list was Matthew Geouge, who prosecutors said ran companies that grossed more than $10 million selling illegal tuning devices. The remaining pardons went to Ryan Lalone, Wade Lalone, Tim Clancy, Joshua Davis, Barry Pierce, Aaron Rudolf, and Jonathan Achtemeier.
Trump framed the clemency as a correction of political injustice, saying the men had been "persecuted by the Biden Administration" and punished simply for "fixing their car." The pardons extend a policy the administration set in motion in late January, when it announced it would stop pursuing criminal charges against the manufacturers, distributors, and users of defeat devices — effectively standing down a signature Biden-era enforcement priority.
The move drew immediate condemnation from environmental groups, who note that tampered diesels are among the dirtiest vehicles on the road and that a single deleted truck can emit the pollution of dozens of compliant ones. The Environmental Protection Agency has long warned that defeat devices undermine air-quality gains and disproportionately harm communities near highways and freight corridors. Supporters counter that the emissions systems themselves are unreliable, pointing to Diesel Exhaust Fluid units that fail in cold climates — reportedly stranding drivers in places like Alaska a large share of the time.
The pardons land amid a broader clemency push by the president in his second term, and critics argue they signal that entire categories of environmental crime will now go unpunished. For the mechanics themselves, the effect is immediate: convictions erased, records cleared, and, in several cases, the threat of prison lifted on a holiday the White House used to frame the clemency as a defense of ordinary tradesmen against Washington.
In plain terms: Trump wiped the records of nine men who got caught helping diesel trucks cheat pollution rules, calling them everyday mechanics unfairly targeted by the last administration. Environmentalists say he just gave a pass to some of the dirtiest vehicles on the road.
Originally reported by Fox News.