CNN
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The Department of Justice has decided to drop its criminal case against Boeing despite the company agreeing to plead guilty last year to its role in two fatal 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people.
The decision to drop the case against Boeing is another sign the Trump administration has been going easier on prosecuting corporate misdeeds than the Biden administration. The decision sparked harsh criticism from some of the families of victims of the two fatal crashes.
“The Department of Justice is trying to sweep the errors and mistakes of Boeing and the FAA under the rug,” said a statement from Chris Moore, who lost his daughter Danielle in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash. “It is said that Justice is supposed to be blind for it to be fair, but the prosecutors are blind to the facts of this case. Boeing has already admitted their criminality – it’s a no-brainer in terms of prosecuting Boeing in a court of law.”
The Justice Department did not respond to CNN’s request for comment but said in its filing that the decision to drop the criminal case against Boeing and instead reach a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) was the right decision given what could be proved in the case.
“After careful consideration of the families’ views, the facts and the law … it is the government’s judgment that the agreement is a fair and just resolution that serves the public interest,” the Justice Department said in the filing. “The agreement guarantees further accountability and substantial benefits from Boeing immediately, while avoiding the uncertainty and litigation risk presented by proceeding to trial.”
The NPA includes Boeing agreeing to pay an additional $444.5 million in victim compensation, on top of the $500 million it had already paid. But it freed Boeing from having to plead guilty to defrauding the Federal Aviation Administration during the process of seeking certification for the 737 Max to begin carrying passengers. A design flaw in the 737 Max that was not revealed during that process has been tied to the two crashes.
It also frees Boeing from being under the oversight of a federally appointed monitor who would have ensured the company was making promised improvements in the quality and safety of its aircraft. That federal monitor would have been part of the guilty plea Boeing agreed to in July. Instead, Boeing itself will hire an outside contractor to oversee its operations, rather than having one chosen for it.
Boeing said Thursday it is committed to improving in its safety record and company culture.
“We are deeply sorry for their losses, and remain committed to honoring their loved ones’ memories by pressing forward with the broad and deep changes to our company,” Boeing said in its statement.
In the final days of the first Trump administration, Boeing agreed to a “deferred prosecution” settlement on the same charges that could have relieved it of ever facing criminal prosecution. But in January 2024, days before a three-year probationary period on that original agreement ended, a door plug blew out of the side of a 737 Max flown by Alaska Air.
While no one was killed in that incident, it opened the door for the Justice Department to again resume prosecution of the company.
Six months later, Boeing agreed to the guilty plea. But even while agreeing to the plea agreement, the company said it did not feel it had violated an earlier deferred prosecution agreement.
In December, a federal judge rejected that earlier plea agreement. He objected to the agreement that called for the Justice Department to pick the monitor, and not the court itself.
“It is fair to say the government’s attempt to ensure compliance has failed,” Judge Reed O’Connor wrote in his opinion. “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.”
But once he rejected that plea agreement, Boeing decided to move forward with challenging the case in court rather than agreeing to plead guilty. The Justice Department cited the lack of an agreement to plead guilty in its decision to drop the criminal case. In a statement two weeks ago, the Justice Department also said it had met with a broad range of the victims’ families while considering what to do next.
“While they are all experiencing grief, they hold a broad set of views regarding the resolution, ranging from support to disagreement,” the Justice Department said in that earlier statement.
Many of the families had not been happy with the original plea agreement, seeking to have criminal prosecution of individual executives at Boeing, and much steeper financial penalties than the $487 million in fines that Boeing had agreed to pay, an amount that is included in the NPA.
The attorneys for the family said that they will seek to have the judge reject this NPA.
“This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history. My families will object and hope to convince the court to reject it,” Paul Cassell, one of the attorneys representing the families, said in a statement.
