Trump pardons 11 people on eve of US Fourth of July celebrations
President Donald Trump issued pardons to 11 individuals on July 3, including two convicted fraudsters and nine charged with Clean Air Act violations, as extreme heat linked to greenhouse gas emissions marked the country's 250th anniversary celebrations.
Donald Trump on Friday issued pardons to 11 people – two convicted fraudsters and nine charged with having violated the federal Clean Air Act by disabling or modifying trucks’ emissions controls.
Those executive pardons came amid US semiquincentennial celebrations blanketed in extreme heat exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions. They were part of a broader wave of clemency from Trump during his second presidency, chiefly for those he considers aligned with him.
Among the pardon recipients was Adam Kidan, president of a light industrial staffing company, who was sentenced to nearly six years in prison in 2006 in connection with the purchase of a fleet of gambling boats. Kidan was a former business partner of Washington DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and the case was part of a wider investigation into an early 2000s lobbying scandal. Newsday reported Kidan helped host a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club for a Republican congressional candidate from New York’s Long Island.
Another recipient was Jack Harvard, convicted of bank fraud in the 1980s. Trump cited Harvard’s “upstanding” post-conviction record and his allowing US and NATO troops to train on his ranch for free.
The other nine pardoned faced Clean Air Act violations under the Biden administration. Trump posted on Truth Social that they were “in, or being sent to, prison for ‘fixing their car’” and declared: “I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!”
The Clean Air Act-related pardons came days after Trump signed a memo to the EPA asserting people could fix their vehicles however they wanted. In February, his administration rescinded a scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and eliminated federal tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks.
Blistering heat gripping much of the US during the 250th anniversary celebrations would have been “virtually impossible” without the ongoing global climate crisis, according to Worldwide Weather Attribution researchers. Organizers of an Independence Day parade planned for Saturday as part of Trump’s Freedom 250 initiative abruptly canceled it, citing an extreme heat warning. On Friday, the Great American State Fair on the National Mall temporarily closed after more than 40 visitors were treated for heat-related illness.
