by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:10 AM ET, Fri December 6, 2024
A district judge in Texas has rejected the plea deal between
Boeing and the United States Department of Justice regarding two deadly 737 MAX
crashes in 2018 and 2019.
According to the Associated
Press, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor rejected the plea deal due to
requirements that the government's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
policies be considered when the government selected an independent compliance
monitor for Boeing.
Boeing initially agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to
defraud the U.S. and pay a fine of at least $243 million after over 340 people
died in the two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
In October, Judge O’Connor questioned how DEI policies would
impact the choice of monitor, taking issue with language in the agreement that
“did not allow the court to have a say in selecting or supervising the
independent monitor.”
Boeing and the DOJ have 30 days to respond with a plan to
proceed.
Judge O’Connor wrote the following in his ruling against the
proposed plea deal:
“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.
Accordingly, the diversity-and-inclusion provision renders the plea agreement
against the public interest.”
“It is fair to say that the Government’s attempt to
ensure compliance has failed. 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.”
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