Government lawyers admitted the investigation into the Boeing 737 Max crashes didn’t turn up evidence of criminal wrong-doing by high-level company executives, rejecting a plea from family members of crash victims for more accountability.
Justice Department lawyers defended a controversial deferred plea agreement with Boeing Tuesday in federal court in Fort Worth that resulted in $2.5 billion in fines but in which the government also declined to prosecute Boeing executives for their role in the two 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The family members of a dozen victims are asking District Judge Reed O’Connor to toss the agreement with Boeing or at least to set aside the non-prosecution deal for executives. They say their rights were violated under a federal law that requires crime victims to be notified and conferred with before the government enters into a deal such as a deferred plea agreement.
