Troy Lake offered a stunning confession during dinner with his new neighbor, Wyoming political consultant Jeff Daugherty: Lake would soon report to a federal prison.
Daugherty was stunned again when he learned Lake’s crime was conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act, a felony. The Justice Department and EPA said Lake, a mechanic and small business owner, had disabled pollution control monitors on hundreds of commercial diesel trucks. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison — an unusually strong punishment for this type of environmental crime.
“I’m not going to lie, it was an emotional dinner,” Daugherty said. “We had just met these people, but already felt this horrible pity for them.”
Daugherty, a political consultant and local lobbyist, decided he would get Lake a presidential pardon, despite having no idea how to do that. Cut to last November, when President Donald Trump granted Lake clemency.
