Judge rejects Justice Dept plea deal with Boeing over fatal 737 Max plane crashes
A federal judge in Texas rejected a proposed plea agreement between the Justice Department and Boeing that would have settled the U.S. government's claims against the company, after crashes of two 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people, according to a court order issued Thursday.
In his ruling, Judge Reed O'Connor took issue with both a lack of judicial oversight and certain diversity requirements included in the deal's independent monitoring process and ordered the parties to provide the court with a plan for possible ways forward early next month.
The federal government's proposed agreement with airplane manufacturing giant over the deadly crashes included various provisions, including an admission of guilt to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and a $243.6 million fine — much less than the billions the families of the victims had requested. The deal would also have required Boeing to spend $455 million on safety programs and to work with an independent monitor who would oversee the company's progress.
Investigators alleged in court records that leading up to the crashes, Boeing deceived federal officials who regulated the planes. In 2021, Boeing and the Justice Department entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, which meant the criminal charge would have been dropped if Boeing had complied with the terms of the deal. But earlier this year, federal prosecutors informed the court that Boeing had not followed through on all of the requirements and intended to move forward with the case.
By July, after weeks of negotiations, Boeing and the Justice Department settled on the proposed plea agreement, prompting an outcry from families of those who died in the crashes. At the time, CBS News reported the deal only covered wrongdoing by Boeing tied to the crashes and did not give the company immunity for other incidents, including a door panel that blew off a Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. According to a Justice Department official, the proposed agreement also did not cover any current or former Boeing officials, only the corporation.
Attorneys for some of the victims' families opposed the deal, arguing the "rotten" agreement with the government did not justly remedy the families' claims against Boeing. In court filings, they accused Boeing of more criminality and urged stricter penalties, harsher monitoring and recognition of the lives lost.
In rejecting the plea agreement, the judge took aim at diversity, equity and inclusion considerations that the parties said they would take when hiring an independent monitor. He wrote that he was "concerned with the Government's shifting and contradictory explanations of how the plea agreement's diversity-and-inclusion provision will practically operate in this case."
Judge O'Connor had previously raised this issue and in responsive court filings, the Justice Department defended the language, arguing it predated the Boeing agreement. "This new language reflected not a change in policy but rather a principle that has always governed the process: that selection of a monitor must be based solely on merit, from the broadest possible pool of qualified candidates," they said.
O'Connor ruled Thursday that the language was inappropriate: "In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency. The parties' DEI efforts only serve to undermine this confidence in the Government and Boeing's ethics and anti-fraud efforts."
The judge also wrote that the Justice Department's previous efforts to oversee Boeing's conduct "failed" and said the independent monitor provision in the proposed deal did not go far enough to include the court in the process.
"At this point, the public interest requires the Court to step in. Marginalizing the Court in the selection and monitoring of the independent monitor as the plea agreement does undermines public confidence in Boeing's probation, fails to promote respect for the law, and is therefore not in the public interest," O'Connor wrote, "Accordingly, the Court cannot accept the plea agreement."
The Justice Department said it's reviewing the decision. Boeing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, Paul Cassell, an attorney for some of the victims' families, told CBS News, "Judge O'Connor has recognized that this was a cozy deal between the Government and Boeing that failed to focus on the overriding concerns – holding Boeing accountable for its deadly crime and ensuring that nothing like this happens again in the future."
