Boeing Plea Deal Shaken Up by Texas Judge’s ‘Odd’ DEI Probe (1)

The US government’s criminal case against Boeing Co. over two fatal crashes took what legal observers called an unusual turn when a conservative Texas federal judge questioned how diversity practices would affect the selection of an independent safety monitor.

Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee to the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, is considering Boeing’s proposed plea deal with the US Justice Department. If approved, that agreement would allow the company to avoid a criminal trial after the agency determined it breached a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement over the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian ...