US prosecutors will meet with Boeing and relatives of victims of the deadly crash as a July 7 deadline approaches for the Justice Department to decide whether to criminally charge the plane, according to two reports from people familiar with the matter and correspondence reviewed by Reuters.
Justice Department officials met with Boeing lawyers Thursday to discuss reports that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the government, one of the sources said. This agreement, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), protected the company from criminal prosecution over two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
According to the second source consulted, federal prosecutors are also expected to meet with the families of the victims this Sunday to update them on the progress of the investigation. U.S. authorities are working on a “tight schedule,” according to an email sent by the Justice Department and seen by Reuters.
Boeing lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis made the case to officials in the assistant attorney general’s office on Thursday that the criminal prosecution would be unwarranted and that there would be no need to break the 2021 agreement, one of the lawyers’ sources said.
Such appeals by companies targeted by the Justice Department are common when negotiating a resolution to a government investigation.
The authorities want input from the victims’ families to evaluate the best way to proceed, the email said. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s criminal fraud division and the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas will participate in Sunday’s meeting, the message said.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Boeing declined to comment.
Boeing previously said it “honored the terms” of the agreement and formally told prosecutors it disagreed with the conclusion that it violated the agreement.
U.S. prosecutors have recommended that senior Justice Department officials bring criminal charges against Boeing after finding that the planemaker violated the 2021 agreement, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The two sides are discussing a possible resolution to the Justice Department investigation and there is no guarantee that authorities will proceed with charges, they said last week.
Source: Terra
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