WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice is considering dropping its criminal case against Boeing over two fatal crashes of 737 Max jets, according to lawyers for family members of the crash victims who met with prosecutors on Friday.
Boeing agreed last year to plead guilty to defrauding regulators after the crashes of two 737 Max jets, in 2018 and 2019, that killed 346 people. But a federal judge rejected that proposed plea deal.
Now the Justice Department is weighing another agreement that would allow Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution. The company would agree instead to a non-criminal settlement that would include $444.5 million for a crash victims' fund.
Lawyers for some of the family members say they're outraged by the proposed deal, and said they plan to fight it in court.
"This isn't justice," Erin Applebaum, an attorney at the firm Kreindler & Kreindler, said in a statement. "It's a backroom deal dressed up as a legal proceeding, and it sends a dangerous message: in America, the rich and powerful can buy their way out of accountability."
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Boeing declined to comment.
Under the previous deal announced last year, Boeing had agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to defraud regulators about the safety of its planes. But U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas objected to the framework that Boeing and the Justice Department crafted to select an independent monitor, insisting the court should play a bigger role.
The acting head of the DOJ Criminal Division's Fraud Section said a final decision had not been reached, according to lawyers for the family members.
"We hope that this bizarre plan will be rejected by the leadership of the Department," said Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah and former federal judge who is representing the families of the victims for free. In a statement, Cassell said his clients would urge Judge O'Connor to reject this agreement, as well.
"Dismissing the case would dishonor the memories of 346 victims, who Boeing killed through its callous lies," Cassell wrote.
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