Key Takeaways
- The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing is looking to change the plea agreement it reached last year.
- The plane maker pleaded to guilty of violating a deferred prosecution agreement following the 2018 and 2019 plane crash that killed 346.
- A federal judge rejected the plea deal in December over a required diversity consideration for the independent monitor to oversee Boeing's probation, according to the Journal.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing (BA), now under the Trump administration, is seeking to have its guilty verdict from last year rescinded. It also wants to reduce the punishment that it will receive for the plea.
Last July, the plane maker pleaded guilty to defrauding federal authorities in a case where Boeing was accused of violating an agreement for deferred prosecution over two plane crashes that occurred in 2018 and 2019. The crashes killed 346 people. The government alleged that Boeing had violated their agreement to maintain safety conditions after a plug from a flight detachment in January 2024.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a federal judge in Texas rejected the guilty plea in December. That judge took issue with a required diversity consideration for the hiring of the person who would be appointed as an independent monitor to oversee Boeing's probation, the newspaper reported at the time.
Now that negotiations over the deal have been extended into the Trump administration, the company is looking to get the Department of Justice's support for changes to the deal, the Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Boeing is seeking to reduce or eliminate the requirement that it hire an outside monitor. However, it will not remove the requirement that it spend over $400 million on improving its safety procedures, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
Boeing declined to comment on the Journal's report, and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boeing shares rose less than 1% on Tuesday morning.
