Trump Pardons 11 on July 3, Including 9 Convicted of Clean Air Act Violations and a Former Abramoff Associate

Since earlier coverage documented Trump's broader pattern of second-term pardons, including the January 6 mass clemency grants and high-profile donor-adjacent recipients, the July 3 batch adds 11 more names. Nine of them are tied directly to vehicle emissions enforcement.

The Emissions Pardons

The nine individuals pardoned for Clean Air Act violations were identified by the White House as Joshua Davis, Matt Geouge, Jonathan Achtemeier, Tim Clancy, Ryan Lalone, Wade Lalone, Barry Pierce, Aaron Rudolf, and Mackenzie Spurlock, according to the Washington Examiner. Each was convicted for helping vehicles install or use "defeat devices" or aftermarket "tuners" that disable emissions-monitoring systems to maximize engine power.

On Truth Social earlier that day, Trump framed the pardons as correcting a Biden-era injustice: "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.'" His post named six; the final White House list came to nine emissions-related recipients.

On June 29, Trump issued a memo directing the EPA to explore ways to reduce legal exposure for Americans who repair or modify their own vehicles, per WSLS 10. The Justice Department had already signaled a policy shift in January, announcing it would stop criminally prosecuting defeat-device installers, though it said it would still pursue civil enforcement in partnership with the EPA, according to the Washington Examiner.

The memo also targets the California Air Resources Board, directing that federal rules would supersede CARB's authority to evaluate aftermarket parts that affect emissions. That is a significant regulatory move with consequences beyond the individual pardons.

The Non-Emissions Pardons

Adam Kidan received one of the two pardons unrelated to environmental enforcement. Kidan pleaded guilty in 2005 to fraud and conspiracy related to a scheme, conducted with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to purchase SunCruz Casinos using a counterfeit wire transfer document for $147.5 million. He was sentenced to nearly six years in prison in 2006, per the NY Post and WSLS 10.

After his 2009 release, Kidan founded Chartwell Staffing Solutions and currently serves as president of Empire Workforce Solutions. The White House credited him with securing employment for more than 250,000 individuals since leaving prison. In March, Newsday reported Kidan was among the hosts of a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser for a Long Island Republican congressional candidate.

Jack Harvard, a ranch owner convicted of bank fraud in Texas in the 1980s, received the eleventh pardon. The White House cited his "upstanding record post-conviction," according to the Washington Examiner. Harvard now runs the Texas Safari Ranch in Clifton.

The Fair Counterargument

Critics of Trump's clemency pattern have a legitimate concern. His second-term pardons have disproportionately benefited Republican donors, political allies, and people with connections to his orbit. Kidan co-hosted a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser months before receiving his pardon. That pattern, taken as a whole, raises a real question about whether the pardon power is being used as a policy instrument or as a reward mechanism for the politically useful. The White House's own framing of Kidan's post-prison record as justification is a legitimate argument, but it applies equally to thousands of former inmates who did not co-host events at Mar-a-Lago.

Where This Sits

No investigation has been announced into any of Friday's pardons, and a presidential pardon is constitutionally unreviewable once signed. The emissions-related pardons have a clearer policy rationale: the DOJ had already stopped prosecuting these cases in January, and the June 29 EPA memo telegraphed the regulatory direction. Pardoning people serving time under an enforcement posture the administration itself has abandoned is internally consistent, whatever one thinks of that underlying policy.

Trump's total clemency grants in his second term now exceed 1,600, per the Straits Times, the largest portion of which went to January 6 defendants.

The outstanding unresolved question is the California Air Resources Board fight. The June 29 memo's attempt to strip CARB's authority over aftermarket emissions parts will almost certainly face a legal challenge from California, given the state's decades-old federal waiver allowing stricter emissions standards. That battle has not been filed as of July 3, 2026, but the legal collision is set up.