The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that Boeing violated a sweetheart deal the airplane manufacturer scored three years earlier in the final days of the Trump administration — opening the door for criminal prosecution over two fatal Boeing crashes.

Allegations of fraud at a key Boeing supplier, which we first reported in January, may have played a role in the Justice Department’s determination. Federal prosecutors said in the new court filing that Boeing had breached the 2021 immunity deal by failing to “prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”

In January, following an airplane door plug blowing out over Portland, Oregon, we brought to light testimony from employees at a Boeing subcontractor who alleged they were told to falsify records and misrepresent defects and safety issues. The Wichita, Kansas–based subcontractor, Spirit Aerosystems, made the body of the Boeing plane that had suffered the blowout.