In the book, Ewing quotes an interview with Alberto Ayala, the deputy executive director of the California Air Resources Board, naming Johnson as the first person to reveal to CARB the existence of VW’s “defeat device” software.
Key meeting
The book quotes Ayala as saying the revelation happened just prior to a key meeting between CARB and VW on Aug. 19, 2015, in El Monte, Calif., and that Johnson in making the disclosure was violating orders he had been given by his superiors.
That same meeting is spelled out in the federal indictment of Oliver Schmidt, a former U.S.-based VW executive facing 11 felony charges related to the diesel scandal. That meeting came after weeks of executive discussions concerning how to keep regulators from discovering that VW had installed a device that would make its diesels meet federal regulations only while running on the dynamometer test.
The scandal became public Sept. 18, 2015, a month after Johnson met with Ayala, when the EPA announced that VW had violated portions of the Clean Air Act.
In the January indictments of six German VW executives -- including that of Schmidt, Johnson’s immediate predecessor in his current job -- the government’s main whistleblower is identified only as “Cooperating Witness 1.”
Witness cooperation
The indictments say that CW1 “is a VW employee who works in VW’s engine development department.” It’s unclear whether that characterization of CW1’s job was deliberately vague to hide the witness’s identity. The indictment says the witness “has agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation in exchange for an agreement that the government will not prosecute CW1 in the United States.”
A second cooperating witness, CW2, whose identity remains unknown, also agreed to cooperate in exchange for an agreement not to be prosecuted, the indictments say.
Johnson was deeply involved in attempting to certify the diesel vehicles equipped with illegal defeat devices. Yet he has not been charged, unlike six German executives also involved in that attempt to certify the diesel engines.
FOIA request
Automotive News submitted a public records request to CARB on Jan. 19 seeking records from the Aug. 19 meeting. The agency’s response, issued Feb. 24, was largely redacted “as part of an investigation or settlement discussions.”
However, among the unredacted portions is an internal email among CARB employees from prior to the Aug. 19 meeting. It reads, in part: “VW has requested a meeting on the diesel issue. Stuart Johnson plans to be in El Monte with 4 staff from Germany.” It also says: “Hopefully, VW will provide the full details on how the controls really work on the in use vehicles and the 2016 vehicles that have cert(ification) pending.”
Ewing verified to Automotive News his conversation with Ayala.
A spokesman for Ayala did not return repeated messages seeking comment.
A spokeswoman for former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, whose office prosecuted the VW scandal and continues to pursue VW executives, declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
