US wants Boeing to plead guilty to fraud over fatal crashes, lawyers say

The U.S. Justice Department is pushing Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners, according to several people who heard federal prosecutors detail a proposed offer Sunday.

Boeing will have until the end of the coming week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the giant aerospace company agreeing to an independent monitor who would oversee its compliance with anti-fraud laws, they said.

The case stems from the department's determination that Boeing violated an agreement that was intended to resolve a 2021 charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. Prosecutors alleged at the time that Boeing misled regulators who approved the 737 Max and set pilot-training requirements to fly the plane. The company blamed two relatively low-level employees for the fraud.

The Justice Department told relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes about the plea offer during a video meeting. The family members, who want Boeing to face a criminal trial and to pay a $24.8 billion fine, reacted angrily. One said prosecutors were gaslighting the families; another shouted at them for several minutes when given a chance to speak.

“We are upset. They should just prosecute,” said Massachusetts resident Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Stumo, died in the second of two 737 Max crashes. “This is just a reworking of letting Boeing off the hook."

Prosecutors told the families that if Boeing rejects the plea offer, the Justice Department would seek a trial in the matter, meeting participants said. Justice Department officials presented the offer to Boeing during a meeting later Sunday, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Boeing and the Justice Department declined to comment.

The plea deal would take away the ability of U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor to increase Boeing’s sentence for a conviction, and some of the families plan to ask the Texas judge to reject the deal if Boeing agrees to it.

“The underlying outrageous piece of this deal is that it doesn't acknowledge that Boeing's crime killed 346 people,” said Paul Cassell, one of the lawyers for victims' families. “Boeing is not going to be held accountable for that, and they are not going to admit that that happened.”

Sanjiv Singh, a lawyer for 16 families who lost relatives in the October 2018 Lion Air crash off Indonesia, called the plea offer “extremely disappointing.” The terms, he said, "read to me like a sweetheart deal.”

Another lawyer representing families who are suing Boeing, Mark Lindquist, said he asked the head of the Justice Department's fraud section, Glenn Leon, whether the department would add additional charges if Boeing turns down the plea deal. “He wouldn't commit one way or another,” Lindquist said.

The meeting with crash victims' families came weeks after prosecutors told O'Connor that the American aerospace giant breached the January 2021 deal that had protected Boeing from criminal prosecution in connection with the crashes. The second one took place inEthiopia less than five months after the one in Indonesia.

A conviction could jeopardize Boeing’s status as a federal contractor, according to some legal experts. The company has large contracts with the Pentagon and NASA.

However, federal agencies can give waivers to companies that are convicted of felonies to keep them eligible for government contracts. Lawyers for the crash victims’ families expect that would be done for Boeing.

Boeing paid a $244 million fine as part of the 2021 settlement of the original fraud charge. The Justice Department is likely to seek another, similar penalty as part of the new plea offer, said a person familiar with the matter.

The deal would include a monitor to oversee Boeing — but the company would put forward three nominees and have the Justice Department pick one, or ask Boeing for additional names. That provision was particularly hated by the family members on the call, participants said.

It is unclear what impact the deal might have on other investigations into Boeing, including those following the blowout of a panel called a door plug from the side of a Boeing Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

FILE - The U.S. Justice Department sign is seen, Nov. 18, 2022, in Washington. The U.S. Justice Department plans to propose that Boeing plead guilty to fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners, according to two people who heard federal prosecutors detail the offer Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - An airplane flies over a sign on Boeing's newly expanded 737 delivery center, Oct. 19, 2015, at Boeing Field in Seattle. The U.S. Justice Department plans to propose that Boeing plead guilty to fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners, according to two people who heard federal prosecutors detail the offer Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden 's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee reported raising $264 million in the year's second quarter, an impressive haul that may help them calm fears within their own party about last week's shaky debate performance.

The total announced Tuesday includes $127 million collected during June alone, when the campaign says it took in more than $33 million on the day of the debate and in its aftermath. Biden also has $240 million in cash on hand, outpacing the $212 million it reported having last month.

Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez called the totals “a testament to the committed and growing base of supporters standing firmly behind the president.”

The announced totals come as Biden's campaign continues to scramble to quell panic among some Democrats, who have questioned whether the president can win November's election after a debate where he appeared raspy, trailed off and at times gave convoluted answers. Some of the campaign's top leaders have held multiple calls since the debate, preaching patience to donors and top surrogates.

Campaign officials nonetheless insist there's been no discussion “whatsoever” of Biden exiting the race nor of any staff shakeups.

Former President Donald Trump, who is set to accept the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention this month in Milwaukee, has yet to announce the quarterly fundraising totals for his campaign and affiliated entities. A spokesman said they would release them “when we're ready.”

Biden enjoyed a large fundraising advantage over Trump in the early stages of the race, but the former president has narrowed the gap more recently.

In April, which is included in Tuesday's full second quarter totals, Biden and the DNC reported raising more than $51 million. That was well short of the $76 million that Trump and the Republican Party reported taking in for that month.

Trump also reported raising $141 million in May, padded by tens of millions of dollars in contributions that flowed in after Trump’s guilty verdict in his criminal hush money trial.

Biden's most recent quarterly total was enhanced by a glitzy June fundraiser in Los Angeles that he held with superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts and former President Barack Obama. That event took in more than $30 million, a record for a Democratic candidate.

The president's campaign said nearly half of the donations that came after the debate were from first-time donors. It said 95% of all second-quarter donations were under $200, and more than 1.5 million total donors made over 2.8 million contributions.

The campaign said it now has a donor base of 314,000, or nearly 100,000 more than at the end of 2024's first quarter in March.

The Biden campaign has used its funds to help open 200-plus campaign offices in battleground states that work with state Democratic parties and have more than 1,000 staffers. Biden's team said that coming out of the debate last weekend, the campaign staged 1,500 events across the battlegrounds.

“Grassroots donors across the country are chipping in every day because they know that this election will determine the course of history,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said.

President Joe Biden speaks in the Cross Hall of the White House Monday, July 1, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)