Boeing Has Confessed to Committing Its Deadly Crime … and Should Now Plead Guilty
Yesterday Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas set a trial date (June 23rd) in United State v. Boeing. The case concerns a long-pending federal criminal charge filed against Boeing for conspiring to defraud the FAA. Boeing has reportedly been dragging its heels about pleading guilty. Boeing has no defense. It should do the right thing and plead guilty as soon as possible.
As I’ve blogged about previously (see here, here, here, and here), the criminal charge pending against Boeing arises out of two deadly crashes of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019. A Justice Department investigation uncovered the fact that Boeing had lied to the FAA about the safety of the aircraft—lies that led directly and proximately to the crashes killing 346 passengers and crew. On January 7, 2021, the Justice Department filed a criminal information with a one-count conspiracy charge against Boeing, alleging that
From at least in or around November 2016 through at least in or around December 2018, in the Northern District of Texas and elsewhere, the Defendant, THE BOEING COMPANY, knowingly and willfully, and with the intent to defraud, conspired and agreed together with others to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, defeating, and interfering with, by dishonest means, the lawful function of a United States government agency, to wit, the Federal Aviation Administration Aircraft Evaluation Group (“FAA AEG”) within the United States Department of Transportation, in connection with the FAA AEG’s evaluation of the Boeing 737 MAX airplane’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System ….
A few minutes after filing the charges, the Justice Department then filed a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), deferring prosecution on the condition that Boeing take certain anti-fraud and other safety measures over the next three years. Judge O’Connor approved the DPA.
But later that year, I filed a Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) challenge to the “sweetheart” DPA, arguing that the Justice Department had failed to confer with the victims’ families about the deal. Following several evidentiary hearings, Judge O’Connor agreed that the Department had violated the CVRA in failing to confer with the victims’ families in what can properly be described as “the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.” But after further litigation—and an intermediate ruling from the Fifth Circuit that further victims’ rights challenges were “premature”—the DPA’s three-year term expired on January 7, 2024. The Justice Department then reviewed whether Boeing had lived up to its DPA obligations. Noting the blowout of a doorplug on a Boeing 737 MAX on January 5, 2024 (two days before the DPA expired), the Department concluded that Boeing had failed. On May 14, 2024, the Department filed its notice that Boeing had breached its safety obligations under the DPA. In July 2024, the Justice Department and Boeing reached a plea deal, under which Boeing would plead guilty, pay a $455 million fine, but would not admit to causing the 346 deaths. On behalf of my victims’ families, I objected. And following a hearing, on December 5, 2024, Judge O’Connor rejected the proposed plea agreement, citing a constitutionally dubious DEI provision and lack of judicial involvement in monitoring Boeing. He gave the parties (DOJ and
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