Trump pardons two Alaska diesel mechanics during rally

President Donald Trump signed pardons for Alaska diesel mechanics Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming during a campaign rally in Wasilla on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Trump invited the men onstage and signed the clemency documents in front of the crowd, making the pardons part of an event that also promoted his administration’s energy agenda and Republican candidates in the state.

NBC News published video of the onstage action shortly after the rally. The Hill separately reported that Trump described the men’s prosecution as excessive and criticized the federal emissions rules at the center of their case. Fleming told the audience that the two had wanted to help people with diesel vehicles and rejected the characterization of them as criminals.

The pardons follow guilty pleas entered four years earlier. A November 9, 2022, Justice Department release identified Czubak and Fleming as co-owners of Arm Rippin Toys and said they pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act. The Hill, citing the federal case, reported that the conduct involved tampering with or removing equipment designed to control air pollution from diesel vehicles.

According to The Hill, federal prosecutors said Czubak, Fleming and a third man tampered with or removed emissions controls from at least 37 vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020. That period began during Trump’s first term and continued into 2020. The guilty pleas themselves came during the Biden administration. Trump’s remarks at the rally focused on what he portrayed as disproportionate enforcement against mechanics rather than on the timing of the underlying conduct.

A presidential pardon forgives a federal offense and can relieve continuing legal consequences tied to the conviction. It does not erase the historical court record, declare that the conduct did not occur or repeal the Clean Air Act. Federal prohibitions on disabling required emissions-control systems remain in place unless Congress changes the law or regulators revise the applicable rules.

The action also fits a broader clemency pattern. The Hill reported that Trump pardoned nine other people convicted of similar Clean Air Act offenses in July 2026, with the White House characterizing those cases as overzealous enforcement. Tuesday’s pardons were a separate and newly announced act involving Czubak and Fleming, delivered publicly rather than through a written release alone.

The setting made the decision both a legal act and a political message. The White House said Trump’s Alaska visit was intended to highlight energy development and what it described as results for the state. By signing the pardons onstage, Trump linked individual clemency to his longstanding argument that environmental regulation can impose excessive costs on workers and businesses. The case also illustrates the opposing policy concern behind the rules: diesel-emissions controls are required to limit air pollution from vehicles.

No initial report identified additional conditions attached to the pardons or a new administration policy changing diesel-emissions enforcement nationwide. The immediate, verifiable development is narrower: Trump granted federal clemency to the two men convicted in the Arm Rippin Toys case while appearing before supporters in Alaska.

Sources and image credit

Video and initial report of the onstage pardons: NBC News

Independent report on the rally remarks, case history and prior related clemency: The Hill

Primary record of the 2022 guilty pleas: U.S. Department of Justice

Official context for President Trump’s Alaska visit: The White House

Image: photograph by Toshio Suzuki for Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington, via Wikimedia Commons (February 25, 2015; public domain U.S. government work; cropped and resized to 16:9). The archival image shows a BLM mechanic inspecting a diesel fire vehicle and does not depict Czubak, Fleming or the rally.