President Donald Trump said Friday he has signed pardons for six people convicted in connection with tampering with vehicle emissions controls, casting their cases as political persecution under his predecessor.
"It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being sent to, prison, for 'fixing their car,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, "While I know this sounds ridiculous, it is nevertheless a fact, and part of the Weaponization and Stupidity that our Country had to endure during four long years of Sleepy Joe Biden. I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!"
Trump did not name the six. The move follows CBS News reporting that a list from his pardons team was expected to be limited to Clean Air Act violators, many of them mechanics prosecuted for disabling "defeat device" pollution controls on diesel engines. It builds on his clemency last year for a Wyoming mechanic imprisoned in a similar case.
"We think this type of case is an example of government overreach," said Stewart Cables, an attorney who works on such pardons.
The emissions pardons landed as Trump dangled as many as 250 acts of clemency around the nation's 250th birthday, a push that has set off what reporters described as a frenzy among lawyers and lobbyists. Sean "Diddy" Combs, serving just over four years after a prostitution-related conviction, was among the famous names Trump had been privately weighing but was not on the recommended list, according to CBS. Fugees rapper Prakazrel "Pras" Michel and Malaysian financier Jho Low, accused of looting $4.5 billion from a state fund, have also sought relief.
The White House has brushed off corruption concerns, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Trump "finds it detestable that anyone would even attempt to profit off pardons." Democrats are probing whether clemency is being sold in a "pay-to-play" scheme they vow to escalate if they win the midterms.
