President Donald Trump has pardoned an ultra runner penalized for using an unofficial trail in Grand Teton National Park and a diesel mechanic who ran afoul of EPA.
Michelino Sunseri, 33, was found guilty of a misdemeanor in September for using a shortcut during a record-breaking 2024 summit and descent at Grand Teton in Wyoming. Troy Lake, 65, pleaded guilty last year to tampering with pollution controls on hundreds of diesel trucks to circumvent Clean Air Act regulations.
The pardons, signed by Trump on Nov. 7, are among a host of clemencies granted by the president this month, which also included a pardon for the president’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and dozens of people who’d been accused of trying to overturn the results of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. Jeff Clark, the first Trump administration’s top environmental lawyer at the Justice Department, was also included.
A well-known ultra runner who documents his runs on social media, Sunseri climbed the 13,775-foot peak in Wyoming in just two hours, 50 minutes and 50 seconds on Sept. 2, 2024. The record-breaking time was later rejected by officials because Sunseri admitted to using a switchback — a shortcut between trails — on his descent. That trail, blazed by hikers in Grand Teton rather than the National Park Service, was marked by a sign that stated, “Short cutting causes erosion.”
