US Attorney General Garland meets with Boeing 737 MAX families

US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday met with family members of some of the victims of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes over the prior administration's decision to strike a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing. In December, some victims' relatives said the Justice Department violated their rights when it struck the January 2021 agreement with Boeing over the two crashes in a five-month period that killed 346 people. They argued the US government "lied and violated their rights through a secret process," and asked a judge to rescind Boeing's immunity from criminal prosecution, which was part of the $2.5b agreement, and order the planemaker publicly arraigned on the felony charges. Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, said that in the Garland meeting they "expressed our view that the department under the previous administration ignored its obligations under the Crime Victims' Rights Act, and our hope that he would intervene to right this wrong." The Justice Department did not immediately comment.<br/>