President Trump signed pardons onstage in Wasilla for two diesel shop owners he said were wrongly charged under the Clean Air Act, framing the cases as Biden-era overreach against Alaska’s way of life.
At a pre-midterm rally in Wasilla late Tuesday, President Trump called Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming onto the stage, directed an aide to “Bring me the pardons,” signed the documents at the podium, and handed them over. The two men co-owned the Alaska auto shop Arm Rippin Toys and had pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act.
CBS News reported that Trump told the crowd the men were “wrongly charged” and that the Biden-era Justice Department had “viciously targeted the Alaskan way of life.” He held one of the pardons up for the audience to see.
Federal prosecutors said the shop offered to remove emission control systems from customers’ diesel vehicles for fees ranging from $1,140 to $5,445. The work included modifying physical components and preventing diagnostic systems from flagging the changes, which prosecutors said caused the vehicles to release more pollutants.
Czubak, Fleming, and third co-owner Michael Hanzuk all pleaded guilty in 2022. Each received five years of probation, $66,000 in fines, and community service. Hanzuk received a pardon last month. Trump said at the rally he was “taking care of” a third person but did not name him onstage.
Trump framed the prosecutions as extreme. “Think of it: They want to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine. How sick?” he said. He added a comparison about murder cases and political double standards.
Fleming addressed the crowd after receiving the pardon. He said the charges “really did destroy us.”
“We're not criminals. We're not trying to hurt anybody. We want to help Alaskans. We want to help people with diesel trucks, with vehicles, across the world.”
Trump described the effect of a presidential pardon in blunt terms, saying it means a person is “as clean as a newborn baby's a**,” then asked why that expression exists. The line drew the expected reaction from the room.
This was not Trump’s first move in related Alaska diesel cases. Earlier this year he pardoned diesel mechanic Mac Spurlock, who had faced Clean Air Act charges for removing pollution controls. Supporters of those modifications have long argued the equipment struggles in Alaska’s extreme cold.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, the Alaska Republican, applauded the Spurlock pardon in July and called the underlying charges the work of “overzealous federal prosecutors.” He has also argued that EPA rules should account for cold-weather states. Tuesday’s rally was held in part to boost Sullivan against Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.
When the Arm Rippin Toys case was brought, Scot Adair, then the special agent in charge of the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division in Alaska, said the agency would “hold accountable those who jeopardize human health and the environment for the sake of profit.” Biden-administration materials warned that cutting out emissions controls “results in a massive increase in air pollution from even a single vehicle.”
In January, the Justice Department announced it would “no longer pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices.” That shift came after the guilty pleas and sentences in the Alaska shop case. Trump has also moved to relax related fuel-economy rules and end an EPA credit policy tied to start-stop emissions systems.
The pattern fits a broader use of the pardon power. Trump has signed and publicized pardons in high-profile settings before, treating clemency as both legal relief and a public statement about who the government chooses to pursue.
The pardons were not the only headline from the rally. Trump also announced that Taiwan will buy 30 percent of the natural gas from the proposed Alaska LNG pipeline and invest $4.4 billion in the project. The Washington Free Beacon reported the commitment as a major step for the long-delayed 807-mile line.
Developer Glenfarne Group needs buyer commitments for 80 percent of the pipeline’s 20 million metric-ton annual capacity. The Taiwan deal helps close an earlier shortfall of roughly 3 million metric tons. Trump called it “one of the biggest deals ever made” and said it “guarantees success.” He said federal permits are already approved and projected more than 11,000 construction jobs and nearly 6,000 operational jobs, along with lower household energy costs in Alaska.
Energy development and diesel work sit at the center of how many Alaskans make a living. Federal cases that treat cold-weather vehicle modifications as criminal conduct land differently in a state where reliability can be a safety issue, not a luxury.
Trump has used clemency in other politically charged settings as well, including when he discussed a pardon in open partisan conflict and when he has signaled possible relief for former associates after long legal fights. The Alaska cases fit the same willingness to reverse what he views as selective enforcement.
Czubak and Fleming walked into the Wasilla event still carrying five-year probation terms, heavy fines, and the record of a federal conspiracy plea. They walked offstage with signed pardons. Fleming’s short remarks stressed that the shop’s work was meant to keep diesel trucks running for Alaskans, not to harm anyone.
Court records and Justice Department materials from the original case described the shop as specializing in diesel vehicles and detailed the fee structure for the emissions work. The men did not dispute the core conduct in their 2022 pleas. What they and their supporters disputed was whether that conduct belonged in criminal court at all, especially after the Justice Department later narrowed its own charging approach on diagnostic tampering.
Trump has also granted pardons in unrelated federal cases, keeping clemency visible as a tool he is prepared to use. In Alaska the message was local and specific: diesel mechanics and shop owners who ran afoul of Clean Air Act enforcement under the prior administration now have a different outcome under this one.
CBS News reached out to attorneys for Czubak, Fleming, and Hanzuk for comment. The rally itself mixed the clemency moment with the Taiwan pipeline announcement and open support for Sullivan’s reelection bid, tying regulatory relief, energy development, and political backing into one event.
When federal prosecutors turn routine shop work into felony exposure, and a president later clears the record onstage, voters get a clear look at which approach they prefer.
