Trump grants pardons to two auto workers during Alaska rally

President Trump during a political rally in the state late Tuesday granted onstage pardons to two Alaska auto shop owners who pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act — an unusually public use of the president’s clemency power.

The president said the two men — Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming — were “wrongly charged,” and cast the charges against the two men as an example of how the Biden-era Justice Department “viciously targeted the Alaskan way of life.”

Czubak, Fleming and a third man named Michael Hanzuk owned an auto shop that specialized in diesel vehicles called Arm Rippin Toys, according to court records. Federal prosecutors say they offered to remove the emission control systems in customers’ vehicles for a fee of $1,140 to $5,445, in part by modifying their physical components and preventing their diagnostics systems from noticing a problem, causing the vehicles to spew more pollutants.

All three men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act in 2022. They were each sentenced to five years of probation, $66,000 in fines and community service.

During Tuesday’s pre-midterm election rally in Wasilla, Mr. Trump called Czubak and Fleming onto the stage and said to an aide: “Bring me the pardons!”

“Think of it: They want to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine. How sick?” the president said. “Now if you murder somebody, no problem. Unless a Republican does the murdering. Then it’s, you know, the electric chair, right?”

Mr. Trump signed the pardons at the podium and handed them to Czubak and Fleming, drawing cheers from rallygoers as the president held one of the pardons up to the crowd.

The president said he was also “taking care of” a third person. He did not name the other person, but the third co-owner of Arm Rippin Toys, Hanzuk, received a pardon last month.

“When you give somebody a pardon, they say that means, and I don’t know how this works and why it’s an expression, but it’s well-used, that means you’re as clean as a newborn baby’s ass,” the president said. “I never understood that. Why is that so clean?”

Czubak and Fleming briefly addressed the crowd, with Fleming saying the charges against the three “really did destroy us.”

“We’re not criminals. We’re not trying to hurt anybody,” he said. “We want to help Alaskans. We want to help people with diesel trucks, with vehicles, across the world.”

WTX US News has reached out to Czubak, Fleming and Hanzuk’s attorneys for comment.

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump granted a pardon to Mac Spurlock, another diesel mechanic who was also charged with violating the Clean Air Act by removing pollution control systems — a case that the president mentioned during Tuesday’s rally. 

Spurlock and his supporters, including GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, argue the engine modifications that he performed were necessary to prevent emissions systems from malfunctioning due to Alaska’s frigid weather.

Sullivan applauded Spurlock’s pardon in July, calling the charges the work of “overzealous federal prosecutors” and arguing the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules should be modified to account for cold-weather states. Tuesday’s rally was held in part to help Sullivan fend off a challenge from Democratic candidate Mary Peltola.

The Justice Department announced in January it would “no longer pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices.”

During the Biden administration, officials took a different tack, warning in a statement on the Arm Rippin Toys charges that cutting out emissions controls “results in a massive increase in air pollution from even a single vehicle.” Scot Adair, former special agent in charge of the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division in Alaska vowed to “hold accountable those who jeopardize human health and the environment for the sake of profit.”

Mr. Trump and members of his administration have railed against other environmental regulations, relaxing fuel economy standards and ending an EPA policy that gave credits to car manufacturers that installed start-stop emissions systems.

The president has also frequently used his pardon power to grant clemency to political allies and people who — like him — argue they were wrongly prosecuted.