President Trump pardoned 11 people Friday, granting clemency to nine defendants convicted of tampering with vehicle emissions controls in violation of the Clean Air Act and to Adam Kidan, a former business associate of lobbyist Jack Abramoff who served nearly six years for fraud tied to a gambling-boat purchase.
The action extends a monthslong effort by the administration to unwind federal enforcement against so-called defeat devices, which disable pollution-control equipment on diesel and gasoline engines, and delivers clemency to a figure convicted in the 2000s Washington lobbying investigation that reached Capitol Hill and the Bush White House.
The emissions cases
The White House identified the emissions defendants as Ryan and Wade Lalone, Matt Geouge, Tim Clancy, Mac Spurlock, Joshua Davis, Barry Pierce, Aaron Rudolf and Jonathan Achtemeier, according to CBS News. Trump called the prosecutions an act of "weaponization and stupidity" and posted on Truth Social, "I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!" The White House said the action relieved "consumers from these regulatory burdens."
Friday's grants followed a Monday executive memo directing the Environmental Protection Agency to allow Americans to modify their vehicles, and a Justice Department order earlier this year telling prosecutors to drop pending cases involving aftermarket defeat devices. Trump last fall pardoned Troy Lake, a Wyoming mechanic who served seven months for disabling emissions equipment on diesel engines.
Jeff Daugherty, a lobbyist representing five of the pardoned defendants, told CBS News that Trump "is the only president who would have taken an interest in these parties, and the reason is he's the only president to face such ferocious weaponization himself."
Kidan and Harvard
Kidan pleaded guilty in 2005 to fraud and conspiracy charges tied to his purchase of gambling boats, was sentenced in 2006 and released in 2009, according to the Associated Press. His prosecution grew out of the Abramoff lobbying investigation that reached Capitol Hill, the Interior Department and members of President George W. Bush's administration. Kidan now serves as president of Empire Workforce Solutions, a staffing firm.
Trump also pardoned Jack Harvard, a ranch owner whom the White House cited for an "upstanding record" and for providing free land to U.S. military and NATO troops for training.
The absent voices
Neither the Associated Press nor CBS News reported an immediate response from the federal prosecutors who brought the emissions cases, from EPA enforcement officials, or from environmental groups that have pressed to keep defeat-device rules in force. No right-of-center outlet appeared in Friday's reporting to press the administration's case for winding down the prosecutions.
The Justice Department's earlier order to drop pending defeat-device prosecutions leaves open how many additional cases will be dismissed and how the EPA will police tampering going forward.