The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will again meet with victims’ families of the Boeing 737 MAX8 crashes on Friday, May 31, 2024, following the Department’s decision that Boeing violated the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) entered into three years ago with the airline manufacturer. The families will seek justice and accountability by asking the DOJ to move Boeing’s criminal prosecution forward in the normal pattern for criminal cases. Specifically, the families will ask for a public trial of Boeing within 70 days of July 7, 2024, according to criminal statutory requirements.
DOJ prosecutors had agreed to defer prosecution in exchange for the defendants to fulfill certain safety requirements. However, in April 2024, they concluded that Boeing had not been in compliance with the requirements set out in the DPA. That means that criminal charges against the corporation may proceed in federal district court in Texas before Judge Reed O’Connor who is overseeing the criminal matter.
In the DPA, Boeing agreed to fully cooperate with the DOJ’s ongoing investigation of the airline manufacturer’s safety practices and procedures and would implement further safety measures as well as pay a fine to the families. If Boeing had fully complied, the Justice Department would have moved to have all charges dropped against the airline manufacturer. The DOJ said in a letter to Judge O’Connor that Boeing breached its DPA obligations “by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”
Families from the U.S. and other countries who lost loved ones in the crashes of the MAX8 jet five years ago are expected to attend in person or via the Internet with representatives of the DOJ in a second “conferral meeting.” Families met in April to voice their concerns about Boeing’s actions since the two deadly crashes that took 346 lives. It is expected that families will offer their input as crime victims under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act as to the ongoing prosecution of criminal charges against Boeing.
Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices and Lead Counsel of the civil litigation pending in federal district court in Chicago, also is expected to be present at the meeting in the nation’s capital.
THERE WILL NOT BE ZOOM CAPABILITIES FOLLOWING THE MEETING. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TALKING TO THOSE WHO ATTENDED THE DOJ MEETING, FAMILIES AND LAWYERS WILL COMMENT LIVE OUTSIDE THE BOND BUILDING, 14th STREET and NEW YORK AVENUE, WASHINGTON, D.C., AFTER THE MEETING AT 4 P.M. EST, FRIDAY, MAY 31. PLEASE ATTEND IF YOU’D LIKE TO ASK QUESTIONS AT THAT TIME.
UPON THE CONCLUSION OF THE LIVE PRESS CONFERENCE, A TAPED VERSION WILL BE AVAILABLE AT WWW.CLIFFORDLAW.COM FOR VIEWING.
For further information, please contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 cell.