Families of crash victims ask US to reopen Boeing settlement

Relatives of passengers who died in crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets are pressing Attorney General Merrick Garland to help them re-open a settlement that shielded Boeing from criminal prosecution for misleading federal safety regulators about the plane.

Several family members and their lawyers held a video meeting Wednesday with Garland. They told the attorney general that the Justice Department violated a federal law by not informing them before finalizing the settlement in January 2021, two weeks before the Trump administration left office.

Garland expressed sympathy to relatives who spoke during the meeting but made no promises or substantive comments on the case, according to participants.

Last month, the families of more than a dozen passengers filed a motion in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, alleging that the Justice Department violated a 2004 victims' rights law by not consulting with them before reaching the settlement, which shielded Boeing from criminal prosecution. They are also seeking documents that the department gathered during its investigation.

Michael Stumo, whose 24-year-old daughter Samya was killed in the 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Max, said passengers' relatives were blindsided and “erupted in anger, shock and renewed grief” when the settlement was announced.

“We don't think they could have gotten this deal through if they had allowed us to have any input and knowledge,” he said.

Stumo and two relatives of other passengers spoke during the meeting. Their lawyer, Paul Cassell, a former federal judge, argued that failing to inform families ahead of time made the settlement illegal.

They asked Garland to support their legal argument that the Trump administration's Justice Department violated a crime-victims' law. Cassell believes that...