Biden's Justice Department spent four years turning ordinary Americans into federal criminals.
Diesel mechanics were next – and armed EPA agents showed up to make the point.
On the eve of Independence Day, Trump picked up a pen and ended something Biden's EPA spent years building.
Biden EPA Overreach Sent Diesel Mechanics to Prison Across Seven States
The Biden EPA didn't send a letter.
It sent agents in tactical gear.
That's what Troy Lake described when federal investigators descended on his Elite Diesel shop in Windsor, Colorado – 15 to 20 agents, Black SUVs converging on the block, the whole operation, to catch a mechanic who fixed diesel engines for a living.
The EPA's campaign swept across seven states – Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and beyond – dragging shop owners into federal court for disabling on-board diagnostic systems on commercial trucks.
The prosecutors called it a "large-scale conspiracy."
Troy Lake called it keeping school buses and fire trucks running in Wyoming's brutal winters.
Lake pleaded guilty, paid $52,000 in fines, and reported to federal prison on February 10, 2025.
He spent his 65th birthday behind bars and his 40th wedding anniversary behind bars.
Biden's DOJ didn't file the criminal charges until 2022 – four years after the original raid on Lake's shop, which happened under Trump's first term.
The EPA waited until a Democrat was in the White House to pull the trigger.
House Republicans Exposed the EPA Right to Repair Crackdown Before Trump Acted
Congress noticed.
Rep. Clay Higgins opened a formal hearing titled "From Protection to Persecution: EPA Enforcement Gone Rogue Under the Biden Administration."
His finding: Biden's EPA had abandoned its original mandate — pursuing massive industrial polluters with full legal teams — and turned its criminal enforcement apparatus on small diesel shops that couldn't afford to fight back.
A 1993 internal EPA memo had actually warned enforcement personnel that automobile dealers and repair shops could not be prosecuted criminally under the Clean Air Act.
Biden's EPA ignored it.
Higgins testified that armed agents raided small businesses using tactics more appropriate for hardened criminals, then leveraged the threat of prosecution to force consent agreements the shops had no money to refuse.
One small business owner testified he spent "several millions of dollars in legal and accounting fees" before surrendering to a consent decree.
"We simply did not have the money to fight the endless resources of the Federal Government," he told Congress.
That's how Biden's EPA operated – not enforcing the law, weaponizing it.
Trump Opened the Cell Doors
"I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!" Trump posted to Truth Social.
Nine mechanics received full executive pardons – men who had been charged, fined, and in some cases imprisoned under Clean Air Act regulations that no longer exist.
"It came to my attention because I noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car," Trump said from the Oval Office. "We rule by common sense."
Days earlier, Trump had signed a "Freedom to Fix" presidential memo directing the EPA to spell out what repairs Americans can legally do on their own vehicles – and ordering the agency to stop treating working mechanics like criminals.
The memo took direct aim at California: Biden's EPA had handed the state's Air Resources Board sole authority over which aftermarket parts could be used anywhere in the country.
Getting a part certified took well over a year even when all the paperwork was in order – a bottleneck that drove up repair costs and gave Sacramento a veto over what American mechanics could put in American trucks.
Trump killed it.
Trump Pardons Clean Air Act Mechanics Because the Rules No Longer Exist
Biden's EPA prosecuted overwhelmingly Trump-supporting mechanics.
That's not speculation – it's a direct quote from a lawyer who testified before the House Oversight Committee.
Justin Savage, a partner at Sidley Austin, told Congress that EPA's criminal charging theory "appears to have been a favorite weapon of the Biden Administration to pursue truck enthusiasts who, coincidentally, are overwhelmingly supporters of President Trump."
Trump's administration executed the largest deregulatory action in American history, rescinding greenhouse gas emission standards across every vehicle class on the road.
The regulations Biden's DOJ used to imprison working mechanics no longer exist.
Trump freed the last of them on Independence Day.
Sources:
- Alexandra Koch, "Trump grants pardons to 'persecuted' mechanics in right-to-repair crackdown," Fox News, July 3, 2026.
- "Higgins Opens Hearing on Biden's Weaponized Environmental Enforcement Targeting Americans and Businesses," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, September 16, 2025.
- Jimmy Orr, "Trump Pardons Cheyenne Diesel Delete Mechanic Troy Lake," Cowboy State Daily, November 8, 2025.
- "Lowering the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix," White House Presidential Memorandum, June 30, 2026.
- "Hearing Wrap Up: Biden-Era Environmental Enforcement Weaponization Harms Small Businesses," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, September 16, 2025.