Key Takeaways
- Boeing is reportedly looking to alter the plea deal it agreed to last year, per a report from The Wall Street Journal.
- The plane maker pleaded guilty to violating a deferred prosecution agreement that followed the 2018 and 2019 plane crashes that killed 346 people.
- 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.
Boeing (BA) is looking to have its guilty plea from last year rescinded or the punishment it will receive because of the plea reduced now that the Trump administration is in place, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The plane maker agreed to plead guilty last July to defrauding the federal government, in a case that accused Boeing of violating a deferred prosecution agreement over a pair of plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The government alleged Boeing had violated its agreement to maintain certain safety conditions after a door plug detached from a plane in flight in January 2024.
That guilty plea was rejected by a federal judge in Texas in December, according to The Wall Street Journal. 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.
The plane maker is looking to revise or remove the requirement of hiring an outside monitor, but not the over $400 million in spending requirements on improving its safety practices, people familiar with the negotiations between Boeing and the DOJ told the Journal.
Boeing and the DOJ declined to comment on the report. Boeing shares were little changed Tuesday morning.
UPDATE—This article has been updated with the latest share price information and a response from the Department of Justice.