By Dave Michaels

The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Boeing has ordered a trial, increasing the odds the aerospace giant will have to plead guilty or defend against a charge it already said it committed.

The order came a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing had been seeking to withdraw an earlier agreement to plead guilty for deceiving regulators before two deadly crashes of 737 MAX jets.

Boeing and the Justice Department were expected to propose changes to the settlement by April 11. One possible change that had been under discussion was whether Boeing could forgo hiring an outside monitor, the Journal reported.

U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor on Tuesday scrapped that deadline and ordered the two parties to prepare to appear for trial on June 23. He had earlier rejected the proposed plea deal over his concerns about diversity considerations for the outside monitor that would oversee Boeing as part of the agreement.

Boeing admitted in 2021 that it misled air-safety regulators about an aspect of the 737 MAX that was implicated in the disasters, which killed 346 people. Prosecutors would rely on that statement to try the company, said Paul Cassell, an attorney for families whose relatives perished in the crashes.

"The judge is saying why are we haggling over things that were resolved long ago," Cassell said. "This seems like a cruise missile striking into the Boeing C-suite."

Boeing said in a statement that it continues good-faith discussions with the Justice Department. A spokesperson for the department declined to comment.

Write to Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 25, 2025 17:06 ET (21:06 GMT)

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