Last month, after a meeting with executives from US auto manufacturers, US President Trump brought up what he called a man who got seven years in jail for fixing his own car. Now, thanks to a series of pardons, we know what the President was referring to. He has just pardoned eight individuals and six companies for offenses against the Clean Air Act and related statutes. They were all involved with large-scale diesel emissions delete device operations.
Diesel Defeat Sellers Issued Pardons
These were individuals who had been sentenced to long terms and big fines for various violations of the Clean Air Act, including conspiracy to violate and conspiracy to defraud the US.
There were four fines in excess of $1 million on the list, along with several individuals receiving a year or more probation and one, Matthew Sidney Geouge of Hendersonville, NC, who had received one year and one day’s imprisonment.
Geouge was sentenced in 2022 for “conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act by selling more than 14,000 illegal devices that defeat required vehicle emissions control systems.” He was also sentenced for tax evasion, though it’s not clear at this time if that was part of the pardon. Geouge created software with emissions deletes that were sold through a company that developed the tuner device. Geouge pleaded guilty to the charges in 2022.
While that was one of the larger violations of the act, the other individuals and companies given clemency by the President had pleaded guilty to similar offenses.
‘If You’re A Polluter, You’re Protected’ Says Environmental Group
Last year, an EPA administrator appointed by Trump declared that greenhouse gases were not a danger to public health, a reversal of a 20-year-old finding. The EPA is also reversing fuel economy and emissions standards for vehicles, including cars and trucks.
In a press conference in the Oval Office, the President said that he was involved in these cases “because [he] noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car.” The statement is a gross misrepresentation of EPA and Justice Department actions, which focused on emissions tampering device sellers, not individual vehicle owners.
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