Contrary to Trump claim, Wasilla mechanic was not just 'fixing' his car
It’s possible that Trump knew he was lying, but it’s more likely that someone told him that Biden persecuted Spurlock for car repairs and that was enough for Trump to ask where he should sign the pardon.
Sen. Dan Sullivan has clouded the issue by presenting an oversimplified version of events, portraying Spurlock as a patriotic hero for violating the Clean Air Act.
Spurlock hired lobbyist Jeff Daugherty to help get a pardon. Sullivan gave the cause a big boost by telling Trump that Spurlock was a victim of Biden’s “weaponized” Department of Justice and EPA.
Sullivan has asked Trump to pardon anyone in Alaska who was convicted of similar offenses.
But even under Trump, the federal government said last year that this is more complicated and that truck owners were eliminating pollution controls for multiple reasons.
“Some want more power and torque. Others hope to avoid the cost of repairing the emissions components. Still others simply like having a big truck that spews black smoke, and they seek out shops like Matanuska Diesel to remove, i.e., delete, those parts,” U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman, appointed by Trump, wrote in a sentencing memo filed November 26, 2025.
“Spurlock has acknowledged that his actions caused diesel vehicles to emit 40 times the particulate matter, 120 times the carbon monoxide, and 1,100 times the non-methane hydrocarbons as an emissions-compliant diesel truck,” the U.S. Attorney said last fall.
Spurlock’s attorney claimed that the pickups he modified had been “essentially disabled by the emission control devices” and the owners wanted relief. The actions were unlawful, but “not uncommon,” his attorney said.
The vehicle listed in the indictment were pickup trucks and vans, most of them more than 10 years old.
There were 9 Dodge Ram pickups, 10 Chevy Silverados, three Ford F-350s and five GMC Sierras.
The indictment charging Spurlock and Brendan Trevors said they collected at least $30,000 from customers to remove equipment from at least 20 pickup trucks and vans from mid-2020 to mid-2022. They charged customers between $1,200 and $1,500 for the work.
The government said Spurlock and Brendan Trevors knew what they were doing was illegal and they only advertised by word of mouth and had the parts shipped to Spurlock’s home, not to his shop, Matanuska Diesel LLC.
They did not create invoices and work orders and did not identify what they actually did on the vehicles, the indictment charged.
“That process involved removing exhaust systems and their corresponding emissions components from customers’ vehicles. Those were replaced with exhaust pipes with no emission controls, known as straight or race pipes,” the indictment said.
In the sentencing memo last November, the U.S. attorney said that Spurlock continued to illegally remove devices after the feds shut down “Arm Rippin Toys” in Anchorage, which was doing the same thing.
Arm Rippin Toys removed devices from at least 37 vehicles.
“Soon thereafter, the defendants hired the same mechanic at Matanuska Diesel who had been doing the vast majority of deletes at Arm Rippin Toys,” the federal government said.
“Nevertheless, even after this news spread within the Alaska diesel community, the defendants persisted in their crimes, only stopping when EPA CID (Criminal Investigation Division) entered the facility with a search warrant. These actions are a clear indication that the defendants would have continued to engage in this illegal conduct had it not been for the criminal investigation,” the government said last November.
Here is the New York Times coverage of the pardon of Spurlock and 10 others, most of whom were convicted of installing or selling devices to remove pollution-control devices from diesel vehicles.
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