Two Alaska mechanics walked into a Trump rally as convicted men and walked off the stage with presidential pardons.
President Donald Trump called the diesel shop owners up at his midterm campaign rally in Wasilla, Alaska, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, and signed the pardons on the spot.
The two men, diesel shop owners Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming, pleaded guilty in 2022 in a Clean Air Act case. Trump stopped at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center for the rally.
White House aide Natalie Harp carried the clemency documents to Trump, and he held one up for the cheering crowd to see.
Trump said onstage that the two men were wrongly charged. The Justice Department under former President Joe Biden, he said, had targeted the way Alaskans live. He said he read about the case, looked into it and decided to grant unconditional pardons to all three co-owners.
Trump said: “When you give somebody a pardon, they say that means — and I don’t know how this works and why it’s an expression, but it’s well-used — that means you’re as clean as a newborn baby’s ass. I never understood that. Why is that so clean?”
The president said: “Think of it: They want to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine. How sick?”
Both men spoke briefly to the rally. “This means the world to me,” one of them said.
The men told the crowd the case wrecked friendships and families. Fleming said they were not criminals and only wanted to help Alaskans. They also urged the crowd to reelect the state’s congressional Republicans.
Trump said the Alaska trip for the pardons was “worth the eight hours in the plane.”
Inside the Shop’s Emissions Business
Czubak, Fleming and Michael Hanzuk II owned Arm Rippin Toys, Inc., an Anchorage shop that specializes in diesel vehicles. All three men pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act. Federal prosecutors said the shop charged fees ranging from $1,140 to $5,445 to strip out emission control systems.
Prosecutors said the work modified physical components and blocked the vehicles’ diagnostic systems from detecting a problem, and the trucks released more pollution.
At least 37 vehicles had their emissions monitoring devices falsified and tampered with by the co-owners and employees between July 2019 and September 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in 2022. About $100,000 came into the business for that work.
The Justice Department put the per-vehicle emission increases at about 40 times for particulate matter, about 310 times for nitrogen oxides, about 120 times for carbon monoxide and about 1,100 times for non-methane hydrocarbons. Trump did not mention those figures at the rally.
Defeat equipment produces an enormous jump in air pollution from even a single vehicle, Scot Adair said in a 2022 statement. Adair was then the special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division in Alaska. People who put health and the environment at risk for profit would still be held accountable by the agency and its law enforcement partners, he said.
Probation, Fines — and No Jail
A $66,000 fine, 180 hours of community service and five years of probation went to Czubak and Hanzuk each, the Justice Department said. Fleming, who was sentenced later, got the same probation, fine and community service, CBS News reported. None of the three men served prison time.
Trump said onstage that he was also taking care of a third person. Hanzuk was pardoned in September, before the rally, CBS News reported.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 550,000 diesel pickup trucks nationwide have had their emissions controls illegally removed over a decade. The agency estimates the excess pollution is equivalent to 9 million additional trucks.
Not Trump’s First Mechanic Pardon
Trump referred to a similar case at the rally. In July 2026, he pardoned nine people convicted under similar Clean Air Act statutes. One of them was Wasilla diesel shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Spurlock. Trump said they were punished for “fixing their car.”
Spurlock and his supporters argued that Alaska’s frigid weather would make emissions systems fail without the engine modifications. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, praised that pardon in July 2026. He blamed overzealous federal prosecutors and said EPA rules should be adjusted for cold-weather states.
In January 2026, the Justice Department announced it would stop bringing criminal Clean Air Act charges for tampering with onboard diagnostic devices. The Trump administration has also eased fuel economy standards and killed an EPA policy that handed automakers credits for start-stop emissions systems. Clemency has gone again and again from Trump to political allies and to people who, like him, say they were prosecuted unfairly.
A $5,000 Promise in a Too-Close-to-Call Race
Trump staged the rally in part to help Sullivan hold off Democratic challenger Mary Peltola. He also used it to lift Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, before the November midterms.
Trump pressed Alaskans to repeal the state’s ranked-choice voting system. He told the crowd that ranked-choice voting is a way for Democrats to cheat.
Trump also warned supporters that another candidate named Dan Sullivan, a retired teacher, is on the ballot. He claimed Democrats put that candidate forward to confuse voters. That candidate won 2.5 percent in the August Senate primary, enough to reach the general election. Trump told the crowd that share could decide the race.
Trump pledged at the rally to send a $5,000 check to every adult American if Republicans hold both chambers on Nov. 3. Independent analysts estimate the cost would exceed $1 trillion.
Trump’s net approval in Alaska stood at about −16 points in early October 2026, according to Civiqs’ state tracker. He carried the state by roughly 13 points in November 2024. The major political forecasters rate the Nov. 3 Senate race between incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Peltola a toss-up.
The Wasilla stop opened a two-day Western swing. Trump held rallies on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in Bullhead City, Ariz., and Kalispell, Mont. At the Alaska stop, Trump also claimed that Taiwan agreed to buy 30 percent of the gas from a proposed Alaska pipeline project for 20 years and invest more than $4 billion. Taiwanese officials had not confirmed those terms. He also said South Korea would invest $50 billion in the project, but South Korean leaders said they made no such commitment, Alaska Public Media reported.
