President Donald Trump has granted a full and unconditional pardon to Wyoming diesel mechanic Troy Lake, who was convicted last year for tampering with vehicle emissions systems.
Lake, 65, had served seven months of a one-year federal prison sentence for modifying and removing emissions controls on diesel engines — a practice outlawed under federal clean act air laws.
He ran Elite Diesel Service near Cheyenne, was also fined $52,000. He was released to home confinement in September, wearing an ankle monitor. When news of his pardon came Friday, Lake said he was stunned and overcome with emotion.
“I don’t guess men are supposed to do that,” Lake told Cowboy State Daily, recalling how he broke down crying after hearing the message from U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who called to congratulate him. “It’s great. It’s news that, you know — I guess I look at it as, there are some good things that happen in the world.”
His wife, Holly Lake, pulled her car to the side of Interstate 25 and cried when she got the call. “These are the first tears I’ve shed over this whole thing since it all started,” she said, referring to six years of federal scrutiny following a 2018 raid on their shop by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Lakes’ ordeal began after EPA agents accused Troy of performing “deletes” — removing or bypassing pollution-control systems in diesel trucks. Lake’s case became a symbol in Wyoming of what many locals and lawmakers see as government overreach in regulating small businesses.
Sen. Lummis championed Lake’s pardon request in Washington, calling his prosecution part of the “Biden administration’s weaponization against working Americans.” Though the EPA raid happened during Trump’s presidency, criminal charges were not filed until 2022. Lummis said Lake was punished “simply for keeping diesel engines in school buses, ambulances, and fire trucks running in our tough Western weather.”
Lummis personally urged Trump to pardon Lake and later introduced legislation to decriminalize the work of diesel mechanics who perform emissions modifications. “Calling to tell him tonight that he’d been pardoned by President Trump was a truly joyous moment,” she said in a statement.
Wyoming House Speaker Chip Neiman also praised the decision, thanking Trump for “doing the right thing” and standing up for victims of “government overreach.”
Lake said he now wants to use his experience to advocate for reform, urging regulators and the diesel industry to find practical, affordable ways to meet emissions goals without crippling small operators. “We need to sit down and think about a more logical way of doing it — not putting people out of work,” he said.
His friend and political consultant Jeff Daugherty, who worked pro bono to support the family’s case, said the pardon shows that “everyday people won today.”
For the Lakes, the ordeal that began with a federal raid in 2018 and ended with a presidential pardon in 2025 has been transformative. “We found out who our friends are,” Holly said. “It’s unbelievable.”
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