Two prominent U.S. lawmakers are pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue criminal charges against Boeing rather than allowing the aerospace giant to avoid prosecution through a negotiated deal. The push comes in connection to the two catastrophic crashes involving Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, which together claimed 346 lives and raised serious questions about the company’s safety practices and corporate culture.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, sent a strongly worded letter to the DOJ on Friday urging the department to reject any proposed non-prosecution agreement with Boeing. They argued that allowing Boeing to sidestep criminal accountability would send the wrong message to the public and to corporations about the consequences of endangering lives through negligence or misconduct.

“DOJ must not sign a non-prosecution agreement with Boeing that would allow the company to weasel its way out of accountability,” the senators wrote. “The company’s corporate failures—and any illegal behavior linked to them—had deadly consequences and cannot be brushed aside through a backroom deal,” they emphasized.

The controversy centers on the 2018 and 2019 crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX jets, which investigations linked to flawed flight control software and alleged misrepresentations made by Boeing to regulators and airlines. The incidents led to the global grounding of the aircraft for over a year and triggered widespread scrutiny of Boeing’s internal practices.

Previously, Boeing reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ in 2021, which allowed it to avoid a criminal trial in exchange for a $2.5 billion settlement and a pledge to improve its compliance measures. However, critics, including the senators, argue that the company has not done enough to reform and that it must now be held criminally accountable.

With the agreement’s deadline approaching, the DOJ is reportedly reconsidering its options. If prosecutors determine that Boeing violated the terms of the 2021 deal, they could reopen the case and move forward with formal charges. Warren and Blumenthal are demanding that the DOJ follow through, warning that another lenient settlement would undermine the justice system’s credibility and fail the families of the crash victims.