Trump pardons six in emissions crackdown, calls prosecutions weaponization

President Donald Trump pardoned six people on Friday, calling them "wrongfully prosecuted" for "fixing their car" in emissions cases. He called the prosecutions "weaponization and stupidity," extending a crackdown on federal enforcement of diesel-emissions rules. The White House did not immediately release the full list of defendants.

Lawyer Stewart Cables and lobbyist Jeff Daugherty represent five of the six defendants. Trump had already granted clemency to Troy Lake, a Wyoming mechanic who served seven months in prison after a case tied to disabled air pollution-control equipment on diesel engines. Lake was pardoned on Nov. 7, 2025, after being sentenced in December 2024 to 12 months and 1 day in custody and a $2,500 fine.

The underlying cases centered on aftermarket defeat devices, the hardware and software used to disable emission controls on diesel vehicles. In Lake’s case, he instructed employees to disable onboard diagnostic systems on at least 344 heavy-duty commercial trucks. His company, Elite Diesel Service Inc., was placed on five years of probation, ordered to pay a $37,500 fine, and required to pay $12,500 to a Colorado public-health program.

The Justice Department on Jan. 22, 2026, ordered federal prosecutors to stop pursuing criminal charges and drop pending cases involving defeat devices. Todd Blanche’s memo said the change was intended to ensure fair prosecution and the best use of department resources. It marked the first formal scaling back of environmental criminal enforcement since Trump took office in January 2025. The shift affects more than a dozen pending criminal cases and more than 20 ongoing investigations.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis urged Lake’s pardon and called the case "weaponized"; she has also backed legislation to strip the EPA’s ability to regulate vehicle-emissions rules and ban federal mandates on emissions control systems. Daugherty said Trump was the only president who would have taken interest in the cases.