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Trump Pardons Two Alaska Diesel Mechanics at Rally

6 sources · updated 2026-10-14
Left 33% Center 33% Right 33%
2 left · 2 center · 2 right

What happened

On October 14, 2026, at a campaign rally in Wasilla, Alaska, backing Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) and other Republicans ahead of the midterms, President Donald Trump called Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming onstage and signed unconditional pardons for them. The two men, co-owners of the Anchorage diesel shop Arm Rippin Toys, had pleaded guilty in 2022 with a third co-owner, Michael Hanzuk, to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act after federal prosecutors said they removed emissions-control equipment and tampered with onboard diagnostic devices on at least 37 diesel vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020, collecting about $100,000; each was sentenced to five years of probation, $66,000 in fines, and community service. Trump said the pair had been "wrongly charged," said he was also "taking care of" a third person — Hanzuk had received a pardon the previous month — and pointed to an earlier pardon for another Alaska diesel mechanic, Mackenzie "Mac" Spurlock, in a similar Clean Air Act case. Fleming told the crowd the charges "really did destroy us," and Trump signed the documents at the podium, saying a pardon means "you're as clean as a newborn baby's ass" and asking, "They want to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine. How sick?" 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."
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 6 articles

4 of 4 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 4 of 4
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Donald Trump, Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 0 of 4
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: None cited.
Credits another outlet 0 of 4
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 0 of 4
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Oct 14, 01:38 UTC by Washington Examiner, naming its source.
Not counted 2
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

Left-leaning coverage reports the pardons as clemency for men who had already pleaded guilty to Clean Air Act violations. Right-leaning coverage in the Washington Examiner instead presents them as men Trump called "wrongly charged" for fixing engines, and never mentions a guilty plea. NBC News states that Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming pleaded guilty after tampering with monitored diesel devices. The Examiner account describes the work as fixing engines on their trucks. A reader of one account meets shop owners who pleaded guilty. A reader of the other meets mechanics Trump said should never have been charged. Right-leaning coverage recasts the pair as working drivers rather than shop owners. The Washington Examiner calls them "two truckers." NBC News calls them "two vehicle repair shop owners." Were the altered diesel trucks ever restored to legal emissions condition?
Bottom line

An NBC reader learns of guilty pleas in a Clean Air Act case. A Washington Examiner reader learns only that Trump called the men "wrongly charged," so the same onstage pardons look like two different legal events.

The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • Trump said the two men had been wrongly charged by the Biden administration official statementin Washington Examiner, CBS News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • The shop admitted removing emissions-control equipment on at least 37 diesel vehicles numberin Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • The shop collected approximately $100,000 for the modifications numberin Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Trump said they want to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine official statementin Washington Examiner, CBS News · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Trump said their work helped keep trucks operating in Alaska's extreme cold contextin Fox News · absent from left-leaning coverage
The Left View
NBC News and The Hill framed the rally clemency around the Clean Air Act convictions rather than claims of wrongful charging, identifying the men as vehicle-repair shop owners and diesel mechanics who had pleaded guilty to tampering with federally mandated, monitored devices that tracked diesel emissions. Their coverage treated the onstage signing as a campaign spectacle defined by an admitted environmental violation, with NBC nesting the item among other critical Trump headlines instead of as a story of prosecutorial overreach.
The Right View
The Washington Examiner and Fox News cast the pardons as relief for workers Trump said the Biden administration had "wrongly charged" for engine work that "violated the Democrats' green new scam," with the Examiner highlighting his line that seeking 10 years because they "fixed an engine" was "sick" next to how murder is treated. Fox News placed the signing inside a rally touting Alaska energy projects, reported Trump's defense that the work helped keep trucks operating in extreme cold and that the prosecutions were unfair, noted his jab at Biden's autopen, and quoted a recipient that the case "destroyed friendships" and "destroyed families" and that "We're not criminals. We're not trying to hurt anybody."
Our Take (balanced)
The left's strongest argument is that the men admitted disabling legally required emissions equipment for paying customers — conduct Biden-era EPA officials said produced "a massive increase in air pollution from even a single vehicle" "for the sake of profit" — so onstage campaign pardons treat proven environmental crime as a political reward. The right's strongest argument is that Trump, the recipients, and Alaska Republicans described the Biden-era cases as "wrongly charged" overkill for engine work they say was needed in extreme cold, a view later echoed when the Justice Department stopped bringing such diagnostic-tampering charges, and that wrecked families were never a proportionate result. The central unresolved tension is whether those guilty pleas establish culpable pollution fraud regardless of politics, or whether the prosecutions were a contested policy weapon against diesel mechanics that clemency and the new charging policy have now repudiated.

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