How dare they go after some members of a cartel?[0] To be fair, they've also gone after Jeep & Ram diesel trucks recently[1], but I don't know the status of the lawsuit after they certified updated emissions controls on current models. Most manufacturers at this point realize lying to and impeding an EPA investigation on top of the collusion for the defeat devices would yield the sort of charges that Oliver Schmidt plead guilty for[2]. I mean, they formed an engineering task force to conceal the defeat device wrt the ICCT study & regulators.

>“VW employees determined not to disclose to US regulators that the tested vehicle models operated with a defeat device,” says the criminal complaint. “Instead, VW employees pursued a strategy of concealing the defeat device in responding to questions from US regulators, while appearing to co-operate.”

While Trump is unquestionably protectionistic, that doesn't mean the case isn't without merit and other countries & regions wouldn't have done the same. The EU is hampered from action because only the member states have the authority to do so as well as the politics of it all[3].

For the record, South Korea was the first country to jail a VW executive regarding the scandal[4].

[0]: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-cartel-collu...

[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-23/u-s-files...

[2]: https://www.ft.com/content/04aa04aa-d648-11e6-944b-e7eb37a6a...

[3]: https://phys.org/news/2017-02-eu-pains-vw-dieselgate-scandal...

[4]: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-southkorea-idUS...