Trump announces pardons for pollution violators prosecuted for "fixing their car"

President Trump on Friday announced pardons for six people whom he said had been wrongfully prosecuted for "fixing their car" in what he called an act of "weaponization and stupidity" by federal prosecutors.

"I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The White House did not immediately provide a list of the names of the six defendants pardoned, but lawyer Stewart Cables and lobbyist Jeff Daugherty, who are representing five of the six defendants, identified them to CBS News. They said Ryan and Wade Lalone, Matt Geouge, Tim Clancy and Mac Spurlock received presidential pardons.

A White House official later confirmed the pardons to CBS News and said that four others had also been pardoned, three for similar pollution violations. Along with Ryan and Wade Lalone, Geouge, Clancy and Spurlock, the official identified the other five as Joshua Davis, Barry Pierce, Aaron Rudolf, Adam Kidan and Jack Harvard.

Daugherty told CBS News, "Thanks to God for putting it on Trump's heart to approve these pardons, and thank God for Donald Trump." He said that Mr. Trump "is the only president who would have taken an interest in these parties, and the reason is he's the only president to face such ferocious weaponization himself."

Daugherty and Cables were informed of the pardons by the White House.

Earlier on Friday, CBS News was the first to report that Mr. Trump planned to pardon defendants who were prosecuted for tampering with air pollution control equipment in vehicles, in violation of the Clean Air Act.

The pardons come after Mr. Trump last fall granted clemency to Troy Lake, a Wyoming mechanic who served seven months in prison for violating federal emissions laws for disabling air pollution-control equipment on diesel engines.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department ordered prosecutors to drop all pending prosecutions and investigations related to so-called aftermarket defeat devices, which are used to disable emission controls.