Federal prosecutors and victims' families are waiting for Boeing to decide whether to accept a plea deal that would settle a criminal fraud charge accusing the aerospace giant of misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed.
Relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the October 2018 and March 2019 crashes are furious about the plea offer, which Justice Department prosecutors spelled out in an online meeting with the families and their lawyers on Sunday.
The families want to put Boeing on trial.
“This package offers another opportunity for Boeing to hide their misdeeds from the public,” Ike Riffel, a Californian whose two sons died in the second 737 Max crash, said Monday. “The families are very disappointed, but we vow to fight on.”
Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who is representing some of the victims' families, called it “a sweetheart deal” for Boeing.
Some of the lawyers involved in the case, however, say a plea deal is better than nothing.
“While I personally would have preferred a more vigorous prosecution, a guilty plea to a felony is a serious step up” from a 2021 agreement between Boeing and the Justice Department, said Mark Lindquist, a lawyer who is suing Boeing on behalf of passengers who survived a scary 737 Max inciden t at the beginning of this year.
The Justice Department first charged Boeing with fraud in January 2021 but agreed not to prosecute if the company paid a fine and followed other terms for three years. Then, seven weeks ago, the department said Boeing had violated the deferred prosecution agreement by failing to make changes to detect and prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws. Prosecutors have not publicly disclosed the alleged violations.
Here are some questions being asked about the case.
The Justice Department wants Boeing to plead guilty to a single count of fraud for deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration about new flight-control software for the 737 Max and how much training pilots of older 737 models would need to safely fly the plane. In the 2021 settlement, Boeing blamed the deception on two low-level employees, one of whom was later acquitted after a trial in federal court.
The company isn't saying. Lawyers for the victims' families say the company would be crazy to reject it.
If Boeing takes the deal, it would plead guilty in what likely would be a very short court session. If it turns down the offer, the Justice Department is vowing to take the case to trial, which could expose more details of Boeing's actions while it was asking the FAA to certify the Max.
Boeing “wouldn’t want that bad press and publicity that would come from a trial that would likely involve family members of victims testifying," said Joseph Facciponti, executive director of New York University’s law school program on corporate compliance and enforcement. A judge might also impose a harder sentence if Boeing contested the case and lost, he added.
Yes. The plea and the sentence outlined by the Justice Department, including a $244 million fine and appointment of a monitor to oversee the agreement, would be filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas. If Judge Reed O'Connor accepts the agreement, he could not change the terms approved by Boeing and prosecutors.
If the judge rejects a plea deal, Boeing and the Justice Department could negotiate a new agreement or go to trial.
Lawyers for the families say that if Boeing accepts the plea deal, they will ask O'Connor to reject it.
It would strengthen the hand of victims' families who have not settled their pending lawsuits against the company. It is less clear whether survivors and heirs who already accepted settlements could file new claims.
It would only resolve the fraud charge filed after the two deadly crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia.
The Justice Department opened another investigation after a panel covering an unused emergency exit blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January; the FBI told passengers on that flight they might be victims of a crime. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are conducting separate investigations into the blowout and Boeing's manufacturing quality.
Boeing announced Monday that it will pay $4.7 billion in stock to acquire Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for the 737 Max. Boeing once owned Spirit, and it believes that bringing the supplier back in-house will help it improve quality and ease safety concerns about its planes.
Manufacturing mistakes by suppliers can turn up in finished products. The Alaska Airlines blowout occurred after bolts were not reinstalled following a repair job at Boeing — workers had to fix rivets that were damaged when the fuselage arrived from Spirit — according to a preliminary report by the NTSB.
A criminal conviction can jeopardize a company's standing as a federal contractor, and Boeing is an important one. The company builds planes for the Defense Department and built a space capsule for NASA.
Facciponti, the NYU expert on corporate law, said the plea could be written so that a Boeing subsidiary pleads guilty, allowing the rest of the company to avoid disbarment. However, in many cases agencies have discretion to avoid disbarring companies.
“I don’t think the government wants to lose the ability to contract with Boeing, so there is always the option for government agencies to allow a company that has been convicted of a crime like this to continue doing business with them,” Facciponti said.
The Boeing case also raises questions about deferred prosecution agreements.
Peter Reilly, a law professor at Texas A&M University who has written about them, said DPAs were intended to handle low-level offenses and first-time offenders but are now used in major cases like the 2015 deal with General Motors, which was charged with concealing a deadly problem with ignition switches in small cars. Reilly said Congress should bar DPAs when victims of a corporate crime die.
“People are realizing, wow, this is what happens when Boeing admits to committing a very serious crime and 346 people die?” he said.
Cathy Bussewitz in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - Workers recover debris at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing Max plane crash on March 11, 2019, outside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. U.S. prosecutors and victims' families are waiting for Boeing to decide whether to accept a plea deal that would settle a criminal charge that the aerospace giant misled regulators who approved the 737 Max before two of the jetliners crashed in Ethiopia and Indonesia. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, File)`
U.S. investigators examine parts recovered from the crash of a Lion Air jet at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nov. 1, 2018. Lion Air flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max, crashed minutes after takeoff on Oct. 29, 2018. U.S. prosecutors and victims' families are waiting for Boeing to decide whether to accept a plea deal that would settle a criminal charge that the aerospace giant misled regulators who approved the 737 Max before two of the jetliners crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance has reverberated across the Democratic Party, forcing lawmakers to grapple with a crisis that could upend the presidential election and change the course of American history.
The Democratic president has vowed to stay in the race against Republican Donald Trump despite the halting and uneven debate delivery that threw a spotlight on questions about Biden's age and capacity to be president. But as Democrats make the case that the stakes of the election are momentous — challenging no less than the foundations of American democracy — they're wrestling with what to do about the 81-year-old who's supposed to be leading the charge for their party.
Here's how Democrats are handling the debate aftermath:
Prominent congressional Democrats have moved in recent days to open concern not just over Biden’s performance during the 90-minute debate last week but also the level of transparency his team has shown about his mental fitness. They’ve tiptoed toward embracing the idea Biden should withdraw.
One Biden ally, Rep. James Clyburn, on CNN Wednesday openly discussed holding a “mini-primary” in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.
After the debate last week, Clyburn, who is 83 years old, had initially urged fellow Democrats to “stay the course” with Biden and “chill out,” but by Wednesday his tone had changed.
“I saw what I saw last Thursday night, and it is concerning,” Clyburn said.
In recent days, comments from Clyburn and other senior Democrats including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have provided signposts for a political party in crisis. Still, it was not clear whether their concerns were reaching Biden, who told aides on a Democratic National Committee call that “no one is pushing me out.”
Clyburn, a senior South Carolina lawmaker who is a former top party leader in the House, also had a lengthy call with Biden on Wednesday.
Pelosi, in an interview Tuesday on MSNBC, still emphasized that the president is on “top of his game, in terms of knowing the issues and what is at stake.”
But she also called on both Biden and Trump, who’s 78, to face tests for their health and mental acuity.
“I think it is a legitimate question to say is this an episode or is this a condition. So when people ask that question, it’s legitimate — of both candidates,” said Pelosi, D-Calif., who’s 84.
Minutes after Pelosi's comments on Tuesday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, of Texas, became the first sitting Democrat in Congress to call for Biden to withdraw from the race.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so,” said Doggett, who's 77.
Pelosi also nudged Biden to prove to the American people that he’s ready for another four years in office by going out and taking tough interviews — something he has rarely done in recent years. Biden will sit for an interview with ABC, his first since the debate, later in the week.
“Everybody is asking one question within the Democratic Party ... which is how do we defeat Donald Trump and how are we going to defeat the threat of authoritarianism,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a prominent Democrat from Maryland, said on MSNBC late Tuesday.
Lawmakers are also concerned Biden’s weaknesses could tamp down potential voters’ enthusiasm, creating a ripple effect that hurts Democrats as they try to maintain a narrow Senate majority and take back control of the House. Down-ballot Democrats are already confident they can outperform Biden in swing races, but if large numbers of voters reject Biden, it could impact them.
While several vulnerable Democrats have stopped short of calling for Biden to withdraw, they've also cast the situation in stark terms: If Biden continues, Trump will win.
“The truth, I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump,” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Washington Democrat, told an ABC-affiliated television station. "I know that's difficult, but I think the damage has been done by that debate."
With Biden’s family urging him to stay in the race, attention has turned to senior Democratic lawmakers who could potentially persuade the president to withdraw his nomination. So far, top Democratic leaders have mostly stood behind Biden in public statements.
“There have not been discussions among senior leadership about anything other than making sure we continue to articulate a compelling vision for the future to the American people related to the issues of importance around the economy,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday in Pittsburgh.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after the debate that it showed voters there was a choice between “four more years of progress, or four more years of attacks on our fundamental rights and our democracy.”
After days of no direct talk between Biden and congressional leaders, the president late Tuesday and Wednesday held calls with Schumer and Jeffries, as well as Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who's a close ally to the president, according to people briefed on the calls who insisted on anonymity to discuss them.
Many of Biden's allies have chided the news media for being fixated on Biden's mental capacities, arguing that instead the focus should be put on Trump's record of refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election he lost to Biden and repeatedly lying.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat who's part of Biden's campaign committee, conceded on Friday the debate wasn't what she hoped for but added, “I think there needs to be a real conversation about the things that Donald Trump said. It is beyond vile.”
The June 27 debate infused a new dynamic into an election contest that had been marked by few surprises. Voters were familiar with Biden and Trump and had previously decided between the two in 2020.
Still, many House Democrats were caught in a state of uncertainty as they faced a barrage of questions on the morning after the debate. Some chalked it up as little more than a bad night for Biden, but others are watching closely to see how voters react and whether Biden can execute a quick political recovery.
Already, vulnerable House Democrats have been distancing themselves from some of Biden’s policies in recent months. That phenomenon became more pronounced after the debate.
Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate Democrat from Maine, argued the outcome of the election was a foregone conclusion.
“While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win,” Golden said in a Bangor Daily News op-ed. "And I’m OK with that.”
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
FILE - Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., speaks, Nov. 18, 2023, in Charleston, S.C. Senior Democratic figures rallied with a show of unwavering public support for President Joe Biden on Sunday, June 30, 2024, amid private angst within the party about his Thursday debate performance. "I do not believe that Joe Biden has a problem leading for the next four years," Clyburn, a close ally of Biden, said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Joe Biden should continue to run on his record." (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)
President Joe Biden arrives to speak in the Cross Hall of the White House Monday, July 1, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Joe Biden arrives to speak in the Cross Hall of the White House Monday, July 1, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
