AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We look now at a reported deal between the Trump administration and aerospace giant Boeing that will allow the company to pay $1.1 billion to avoid criminal prosecution for the two deadly crashes of the company’s 737 MAX jet in 2018 in Indonesia, and then in 2019 in Ethiopia, which killed together all 346 people on the two planes. The non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department was announced Friday.

Under the deal, Boeing would pay fines and fund safety improvements and provide an additional $445 million for crash victims’ families. The DOJ said in a court filing Boeing would also agree to an independent, third-party compliance consultant, and the company’s board would be required to meet with families of the victims.

The DOJ claims about 110 victims’ families supported the deal, while a lawyer for other families promised to urge a judge to reject the deal, saying in a statement, quote, “This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.”

For more, we’re joined by Nadia Milleron. She is an aviation safety advocate whose daughter, Samya Rose Stumo, was killed along with 156 others when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX, crashed in 2019 in Ethiopia.

Nadia, welcome back to Democracy Now! I should also say you’re the niece of Ralph Nader and that your daughter was the grandniece of Ralph Nader. Talk about what your feelings are about this deal.

NADIA MILLERON: We have a corporate criminal that committed the deadliest crime in U.S. history, killing 346 people because of their fraud, lying to the FAA. And so, that corporate criminal wrote down a confession as part of the original DPA, the deferred prosecution agreement, and they said, “Yes, we did this. We lied to the FAA.” And then the judge said, “And those lies, that fraud, killed the 346 people.” And so, there would be no trial of any consequence. It would take a couple of minutes, because you already have a confession.

So, why are they letting off this corporate criminal, who continues to do the same behavior? The reason they violated the DPA is because they had so many violations against regulations and laws, and they were misrepresenting the safety of the plane. And then, just a few days before the deal ended, their term under the DPA, the deferred prosecution agreement, the Alaska Air blowout happened, and that showed the world — and the Department of Justice could not deny it — that Boeing was not taking care of their business. They were continuing their behavior to risk human life, just as they had done before.

So, we have a chance now. And we want the American people to stand up and say what it is that they believe, that they need to be defended by the Department of Justice, that the Department of Justice needs to take this to prosecution, that they should not give a pass to this corporate criminal, because Boeing is continuing to risk people’s lives.

And on June 23rd, the Department of Justice will presumably make a motion to dismiss before the judge in Fort Worth, Texas, Judge Reed O’Connor, and then we hope the judge will deny it. But the Department of Justice could always change their course before that time, and they should be urged to by the American people. And also, the judge can stand up for our population and passengers and crew on aircraft. And, in fact, we did appeal a previous ruling of his to the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, and the 5th Circuit said to Judge Reed O’Connor, “You look out for the public interest. You can do this. You can deny deals.” And he did deny the first deal that the Department of Justice tried to make with Boeing. He did deny it and say, “No, this is not good.” So they came up with a worse one. So, hopefully, he will deny it.

And, please, everybody, speak up, because what Pam Bondi is not seeing is that she or her loved ones can die on these defective planes. If you allow a company to keep making defective planes and to have no accountability or responsibility or consequences for their murders of all these people, then they’re going to keep going, and you can also die, and your loved ones can also die on that. She’s not immune from that. So, it’s really important to hold Boeing accountable.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Nadia, the Department of Justice said in its filing on Friday that 110 of the families of victims either supported the deal or did not oppose it. What’s your understanding of how the families of the victims are shaping up on this question?

NADIA MILLERON: So, many families in Indonesia never received previous payments from Boeing, so their lawyers, or whoever was in charge of those payments, they took the money. So, maybe those families are thinking that this is the only option for them to receive money. But that’s not the case. Judge Reed O’Connor, in adjudicating this case, can demand that Boeing pay them money. And that all should be straightened out. Whatever the reason is that they, in a second criminal action, didn’t receive their money that was due them, you know, that should be corrected. But it shouldn’t be corrected this way, by giving Boeing a pass for their crime.

In other words, what’s happening here, imagine somebody uses a machine gun and sprays down a bunch of people and kills them. OK, then they go to those victim families and say, “We’ll pay you money if you agree to a deal where I, as the murderer, don’t get prosecuted.” That doesn’t make any sense. That’s not a justice system. We shouldn’t allow that.

AMY GOODMAN: Nadia, before we go —

NADIA MILLERON: Most of the families agree that Boeing should be prosecuted. Two-thirds of the families agree.

AMY GOODMAN: Nadia, before we go, for our radio audience, you’re holding a picture of Samya next to your face, and behind you is pictures of so many of the victims. I wanted you just to remind us who Samya Rose Stumo was, why she was on that plane, one of so many stories, what, more than 300 people’s stories who died on those two MAX planes.

NADIA MILLERON: Well, most of the people on the Ethiopian plane were humanitarians. And Samya was a humanitarian going to Uganda. She was a happy warrior. She believed that data was power. And she knew that — she was tracking what the Gates Foundation, how their expenditures were happening in Uganda, and whether that money was really going to help real people. Samya would have saved so many people’s lives through healthcare in her lifetime. And we miss her terribly.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Nadia Milleron, I want to thank you so much for being with us, aviation safety advocate whose daughter, Samya Rose Stumo, was killed along with 156 others on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. The Boeing 737 MAX crashed in 2019. In fact, Nadia Milleron ran for Congress from Massachusetts and is running again.

I want to bring into this conversation Rob Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, who said this deal is, quote, “one of the most shocking lapses of criminal enforcement against a major corporation in memory. The Trump administration touts how it is tough on crime, but when it comes to the world’s most powerful institutions, it is an all-time patsy.” Rob Weissman, we also want to talk to you about the budget and that crypto dinner, and we only have a few minutes, but first respond to the DOJ’s deal holding Boeing not criminally responsible for the crashes.

ROBERT WEISSMAN: Right. Well, just to be clear about what happened, as Nadia was saying, Boeing entered a deal at the end of the first Trump administration, which itself was a sweetheart deal. They promised not to break the law again. They did. And now their reward is a deal that’s even softer than the original one that they entered into with the first Trump administration. It is unconscionable.

And it’s really useful to contrast this treatment of Boeing with the conversation you had in the first segment about what this administration is doing with undocumented people in this country. So, they’re criminalizing everyday people trying to get by, and they are historically soft on corporate criminals who are actually powerful and killing people. It is the most extreme contrast imaginable. It is the greatest abuse imaginable of the criminal justice system. And it’s what we’re going to be in for for the next three-and-a-half years, unless the people rise up and demand something really different.