President Trump Pardons 9 More Diesel Tuners Convicted Of Violating The Clean Air Act

President Trump pardoned another nine people convicted of tampering with emission controls or selling the parts to do so, reports the Washington Post. This comes hot on the heels of last week's memorandum that many are calling a "Right to Repair" victory, but really seeks to defang California's process of testing and certifying emission-compliant aftermarket equipment.

On Friday, July 3, Trump posted to Truth Social:

It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being sent to, prison, for "fixing their car." While I know this sounds ridiculous, it is nevertheless a fact, and part of the Weaponization and Stupidity that our Country had to endure during four long years of Sleepy Joe Biden. I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!

In fact, he pardoned nine people for Clean Air Act violations, not six. The people he pardoned were not home DIY mechanics as he implies, but professionals who either deleted emission controls or sold components to do so to anywhere from a small fleet to hundreds of thousands of customers. Most of these investigations and convictions took place, at least in part, during Trump's first or second term, rather than exclusively under Biden as Trump claims. In what must certainly be coincidences, Trump also pardoned Adam Kidan, who had pleaded guilty to fraud charges and also donated more than $4 million to Trump's and other Republican campaigns, as well as Jack Harvard, also convicted of fraud but who has allowed troops to train on his land at no charge.

Here's who will suffer no further consequences for their actions of making the air more difficult to breathe:

• Jonathan Achtemeier, who pleaded guilty to tampering with monitoring devices on hundreds of trucks between 2019 and 2022.
• Tim Clancy, convicted of performing "deletes and tunes" on at least 13 trucks owned and operated by his company, Clancy Logistics, between 2019 and 2023.
• Joshua Davis, who settled with the EPA in 2022 after supplying "tens of thousands of defeat devices [that] violated the Clean Air Act."
• Matt Geouge, convicted of selling more than 14,000 defeat devices since 2015.
• Ryan and Wade Lalone, convicted of removing emission controls from 70 percent of the vehicles their business, Diesel Freak, worked on between 2015 and 2018.
• Barry Pierce, who pleaded guilty to deleting hundreds of vehicles through his businesses, GDP Tuning and Gorilla Diesel Performance, between 2016 and 2020.
• Aaron Rudolf, who pleaded guilty to manufacturing and selling over 250,000 products designed to bypass emission controls and installing defeat devices on about 300 trucks through his company, Rudy's Performance Parts, between 2014 and 2019.
• Mackenzie Spurlock, who pleaded guilty to "deleting" and "tuning" nine trucks through his business, Matanuska Diesel, between 2020 and 2022.

These men join Troy Lake and Elite Diesel Service in having their convictions for Clean Air Act violations pardoned by a President who has said that emission standards "don't mean a damn bit of difference for the environment." While they won't get their fines back, nor any time that they served in prison, it's basically a Presidential "nah, you good." Because breathing greenhouse gases is fine, apparently.