Trump pardons six people pursued for 'fixing their car'

María Paula Mijares Torres and Ava Benny-Morrison, Bloomberg News on Jul 3, 2026

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pardoned six people who he said were sentenced or in prison for “fixing their car,” a day before the U.S. celebrates 250 years of independence on July 4.

Trump didn’t identify the people or specify their offenses. In a presidential memorandum issued Monday, he asked the Environmental Protection Agency to look into making it easier for ordinary Americans to alter emissions control devices in vehicles, casting it as part of efforts to address the cost of living.

Trump has liberally used the power to wipe out convictions and end prison sentences since the first day of his second term, issuing more than 1,600 grants of clemency. That has inspired a wave of applications from former inmates and defendants jostling to get their cases in front of the right people at the White House.

Trump’s clemency grants have benefited allies, donors and loyalists, such as Republican politicians and white-collar defendants with impressive campaign donation records. People serving harsh sentences for drug crimes, one-time sports stars and the former president of Honduras also have been granted relief.

The bulk of Trump’s second-term grants of clemency went to more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

On the eve of national celebrations marking Independence Day, Trump said in a social post that former President Joe Biden’s administration “persecuted” the people he pardoned on Friday, saying it was part of Biden’s alleged weaponization of government.

“I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The president has previously alluded to a 2024 case of a Wyoming man who pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act by disabling emissions control systems on hundreds of commercial trucks. Trump pardoned the man in November after a lobbying campaign.

Trump’s memorandum this week said certifying that an aftermarket auto part doesn’t increase vehicle emissions takes too long in the U.S. and it’s his administration’s policy “that consumers should be able to fix their vehicles with affordable parts without being deemed to have circumvented emissions controls.”