President Trump, during a political rally in the state Tuesday night, 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 accused” and presented the charges against the two men as an example of how the Biden-era Justice Department “brutally attacked the Alaskan way of life.” a third man named Michael Hanzuk owned an auto shop specializing in diesel vehicles called Arm Rippin Toys, according to court records. Federal prosecutors say they offered to remove emissions control systems in customers’ vehicles for a fee of $1,140 to $5,445, in part by modifying their physical components and preventing their diagnostic 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. Each was sentenced to five years of probation, $66,000 in fines and community service. At Tuesday’s pre-midterm election rally in Wasilla, Trump called Czubak and Fleming to the stage and told an aide, “Bring me the pardons!” said the president. “Now, if you murder someone, no problem. Unless a Republican murders. Then it’s, you know, the electric chair, right?” Trump signed the pardons at the podium and presented them to Czubak and Fleming, drawing applause from rally attendees as the president showed one of the pardons to the crowd. The president said he was also “taking care” of a third person. He did not name the other person, but Arm Rippin Toys’ third co-owner, Hanzuk, received a pardon last month. “When you give someone a pardon, they say that means, and I don’t know how this works and why it’s an expression, but it’s used well, that means you’re as clean as a newborn baby’s bottom,” the president said. “I never understood that. Why is it so clean?” Czubak and Fleming briefly addressed the crowd, and Fleming said the charges against the three “really destroyed us.” “We’re not criminals. We’re not trying to hurt anyone,” he said. “We want to help Alaskans. We want to help people with diesel trucks and vehicles around the world.” CBS News has reached out to attorneys for Czubak, Fleming and Hanzuk for comment. Earlier this year, Trump granted a pardon to Mac Spurlock, another diesel mechanic who was also accused of violating the Clean Air Act by eliminating pollution control systems, a case the president mentioned during Tuesday’s rally. Spurlock and his supporters, including Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, argue that the engine modifications he made were necessary to prevent emissions systems from malfunctioning in Alaska’s frigid climate. Sullivan applauded Spurlock’s pardon in July, calling the charges the work of “overzealous federal prosecutors” and arguing that Environmental Protection Agency 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 that it would “no longer pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices.” Scot Adair, former special agent in charge of the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division in Alaska, vowed to “hold accountable those who endanger human health and the environment for profit.” Trump and members of his administration have criticized other environmental regulations, relaxing fuel economy standards and ending an EPA policy that gave credits to automakers 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 unfairly prosecuted. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
