President Donald Trump stopped a midterm campaign rally in Wasilla, Alaska, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, to call two diesel shop owners onto the stage and hand them presidential pardons for a Clean Air Act case they pleaded guilty to in 2022.
Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming walked up to the podium at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center as White House aide Natalie Harp carried the clemency documents to Trump, who signed them in front of the audience, passed them to the two men and lifted one toward the crowd.
“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?” Trump said.
A Pardon Signed at the Podium
Onstage, Trump said the two men had been wrongly charged and accused the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden of going after the way Alaskans live. He said he had read about the case, looked into it and decided to grant all three co-owners of the shop unconditional pardons.
“Think of it: They want to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine. How sick?” the president said.
Both men spoke briefly to the rally. “This means the world to me,” Fleming said. Czubak told the crowd the prosecution had wrecked friendships and families, and said the three were not criminals and had wanted to help Alaskans and other drivers of diesel trucks.
What Prosecutors Said the Shop Did
Czubak and Fleming owned Arm Rippin Toys, Inc., an Anchorage shop specializing in diesel vehicles, along with Michael Wayne Hanzuk. All three pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act.
Federal prosecutors said the shop offered to strip out emission control systems for fees ranging from $1,140 to $5,445, modifying physical components and blocking the vehicles’ diagnostic systems from detecting a problem, which left the trucks releasing more pollution. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in 2022 that the co-owners and employees falsified and tampered with emissions monitoring devices on at least 37 vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020. The business took in about $100,000 for the work.
According to the Justice Department, the removals raised per-vehicle emissions of particulate matter by a factor of about 40 times, nitrogen oxides by about 310 times, carbon monoxide by about 120 times and non-methane hydrocarbons by about 1,100 times. Scot Adair, then the special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division in Alaska, said in a 2022 statement that defeat equipment produces an enormous jump in air pollution from even a single vehicle, and that the agency and its law enforcement partners would keep holding accountable people who put health and the environment at risk for profit.
Trump did not mention those figures at the rally. The three men were sentenced to five years of probation, $66,000 in fines and 180 days of community service. Trump said on stage that he was also taking care of a third person; Hanzuk had already received a pardon in September 2026.
A Pattern of Emissions Clemency
The pardons follow a similar case Trump referenced at the rally. In July 2026, he pardoned Mac Spurlock, another Alaska diesel mechanic charged with violating the Clean Air Act by removing pollution control systems. Spurlock and his supporters have argued the engine modifications were needed to keep emissions systems from failing in Alaska’s frigid weather. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, praised that pardon in July 2026, blamed overzealous federal prosecutors and said EPA rules should be adjusted for cold-weather states.
The Justice Department announced in January 2026 that it would stop bringing criminal Clean Air Act charges based on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices. Trump’s administration has also loosened fuel economy standards and scrapped an EPA policy that gave automakers credits for start-stop emissions systems. Trump has repeatedly used his clemency power for political allies and for people who, like him, say they were prosecuted unfairly.
Midterm Stakes in Alaska
The rally was staged in part to help Sullivan hold off Democratic challenger Mary Peltola and to lift Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, before the November midterms. Trump also pressed Alaskans to repeal the state’s ranked-choice voting system, telling the crowd it amounts to a way for Democrats to cheat.
He warned supporters about another candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot, a retired teacher whom Trump claimed Democrats had put forward to confuse voters. That candidate drew 2.4 percent in the ranked-choice Senate primary, enough to reach the general election, and Trump told the crowd that share could decide the race.
