DOJ Orders End to Criminal Cases Over Auto Emissions Defeat Devices

The Justice Department has ordered federal prosecutors to stop bringing criminal charges and to dismiss all pending cases targeting the sale of illegal emissions “defeat devices” for diesel vehicles, according to a memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche obtained by CBS News. The directive, the Trump administration’s first formal pullback of criminal environmental enforcement, adopts a new legal theory that Clean Air Act violations involving these devices can only be handled civilly—a position at odds with career DOJ and EPA lawyers’ views and past practice. Blanche’s order could disrupt more than a dozen active criminal cases and over 20 ongoing investigations into companies and individuals selling aftermarket kits that disable pollution controls, even though a 2020 EPA study found defeat devices on about 550,000 diesel pickups led to 570,000 tons of excess nitrogen-oxide emissions. The move follows Trump’s November pardon of Wyoming diesel mechanic Troy Lake, who served seven months in prison for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act, and comes as Sen. Cynthia Lummis pushes legislation to strip EPA’s authority over vehicle-emissions rules and block federal mandates for emissions controls. Environmental and legal experts are likely to see the policy as a signal that the administration is siding with the diesel aftermarket and against aggressive pollution enforcement, effectively undercutting a tool used in cases ranging from small shops to Volkswagen’s multibillion-dollar diesel-cheating prosecution.