Troy Lake made a startling confession over dinner with his new neighbor, Wyoming political consultant Jeff Daugherty, revealing he was about to report to federal prison.
Daugherty was stunned to learn that Lake’s crime was conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act, a federal felony carrying serious consequences for a small business owner.
The Justice Department and the EPA alleged that Lake, a mechanic, had disabled pollution control monitors on hundreds of commercial diesel trucks.
Lake pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, an unusually stiff punishment for this category of environmental offense.
Daugherty, a local lobbyist with no prior experience navigating the pardon process, decided he would personally secure Lake a presidential pardon and set about figuring out how to do it.
By last November, his efforts had paid off, with President Donald Trump granting Lake clemency after Lake had already served seven months of his sentence.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) had written a letter to Trump on Sept. 30 requesting the pardon, and she praised the outcome publicly after it was granted.
“I’m grateful that President Trump has pardoned Troy Lake, a Wyoming constituent who was the victim of a weaponized Biden Justice Department,” Lummis said.
The Trump administration sent a broader policy signal on January 21, 2026, when the Justice Department announced it would no longer pursue criminal charges for removing or altering emissions control devices on diesel trucks, a practice known as a “tune” or a “delete.”
Others are now hoping for similar relief, including LaLone, whose company Diesel Freak was charged with felonies for reprogramming environmental controls on vehicles through a process known as deletion.
LaLone was sentenced in 2024 to a year’s probation, while his business was hit with a $750,000 fine for the emissions-related violations.
LaLone said he felt “blindsided” by the criminal charges and told Politico that many of the vehicles in question were owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation or local counties and were brought to him because emissions control systems don’t perform well in cold weather.
His case reflects a wider pattern of diesel mechanics and small business owners who say they were caught off guard by aggressive federal enforcement of emissions tampering laws.
Trump is reportedly considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate the nation’s semiquincentennial this summer, though it remains unclear whether Clean Air Act convicts will be among those who receive clemency.
The growing movement of pardon seekers illustrates how the Trump administration’s shift away from emissions enforcement is reshaping the legal landscape for an entire segment of the diesel repair industry.
