Boeing and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confirm they are revising a proposal under which the company would plead guilty to federal fraud charges, a move coming after a federal judge rejected an initial plea deal.
Attorneys for the aircraft manufacturer and the US government also say the coming power shift in Washington could delay their ability to finalise a new agreement.
“The parties are meeting and conferring on how to proceed in this matter, to include revisions to the proposed plea agreement that would address the reasons the court rejected it,” attorneys for Boeing and the DOJ said in papers filed on 3 January with US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The court filing is not more specific and Boeing declines to comment.
Judge Reed O’Connor on 5 December threw out Boeing’s initial proposed guilty plea due to concern about requirements related to an anti-fraud compliance monitoring programme.
O’Connor cited a provision in the deal that would require the DOJ to select a compliance monitor “in keeping with [its] commitment to diversity and inclusion”.
O’Connor had asked the DOJ to clarify how it would apply that requirement. In response, the agency directed the judge to a 2021 executive order signed by President Joe Biden that describes the government’s policy of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion based on factors such as race, court papers say.
O’Connor subsequently rejected the plea deal because he said the government’s policies would “prioritise” race when selecting a monitor, at the possible expense of competency.
Boeing’s initial guilty plea had also been fiercely opposed by families of victims killed in two 737 Max crashes, in 2018 and 2019. Attorneys for relatives faulted the deal for not specifying that Boeing’s fraud contributed to those accidents.
In their 3 January court filing, Boeing and DOJ also note that the process of revising Boeing’s plea deal could be delayed by new leadership at the DOJ.
Current attorney general Merrick Garland, a Biden selection, is set to be succeeded by an attorney general nominated by Donald Trump, who is to be sworn in as president on 20 January.
Trump already selected former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi as the DOJ’s next attorney general, though Bondi must be confirmed by the US Senate.
“The parties… recognise that the upcoming change in department leadership, and the need to brief incoming officials, may necessitate additional time for the parties to determine whether they can reach a revised proposed plea agreement,” Boeing and the DOJ say in the court filing.
They ask the judge give them until 16 February to file a next status update.
The DOJ in 2021 charged Boeing with defrauding the FAA during the 737 Max’s certification process by failing to inform the agency about critical aspects of the jet’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. That flight-control system put two 737 Max 8s – a Lion Air jet in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines jet in March 2019 – into dives from which the pilots could not recover.
