President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to a California portable toilet company owner who admitted to illegally dumping raw sewage into city sewer systems, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from across the political spectrum. Arie Eric De Jong III, who ran Diamond Environmental Services in San Marcos, had pleaded guilty in 2017 to disposing of sludge illegally across multiple Southern California cities.
Kenneth P Vogel broke the news of the pardon, revealing that Trump cleared the 59-year-old businessman of all charges. De Jong had been sentenced to five months in federal prison in 2018, though he was released later that same year. The case centred on a scheme where De Jong's company dumped waste to avoid paying proper disposal fees, potentially saving millions of pounds.
