Embattled aerospace giant Boeing faces a monumental choice: Plead guilty to a felony fraud charge for its role in past deadly plane crashes, or roll the dice on a high-profile trial against the Justice Department.
The company has until Friday to decide.
Both options are potentially fraught. Accepting a plea deal for violating the terms of a 2021 agreement with DOJ would be a black mark for one of the United States’ most important manufacturers and defense contractors, whose factories support thousands of U.S. jobs and whose political arm gives heavily to candidates of both parties.
It would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and could complicate the company’s ability to continue winning contracts with the federal government.
But a trial would spark a potentially damaging discovery process, perpetuate Boeing’s ordeal in the news headlines and produce made-for-TV moments of victims’ families calling for justice. The legal process would drag out well into next year — potentially bringing an unpredictable face-off against a Trump administration DOJ.
Oh, “hundreds of millions”? Oh Boo Fucking Hoo. They’ll make that back in two goddamned weeks.
These fines are a goddamned joke. Jail the CEOs or just admit the whole thing’s a farce.
The business loss from the media coverage of the trial would lose them a shit ton more than that.
Problem is that we actually need to hold some of the executives that made the catastrophic decisions responsible for those decisions
That isn’t going to happen no matter what
