Justice Dept. seeks to drop charges against officers in Breonna Taylor’s death

The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday to drop the remaining criminal charges against two Louisville, Kentucky, police officers involved in drafting the no-knock search warrant that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020.

The motion, filed in the Western District of Kentucky, asked the court to dismiss the charges “in the interest of justice.” A department spokesperson described the charges as an example of “weaponized federal overreach” by the Biden administration.

The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black medical worker, was one of the main drivers of wide-scale protests that erupted in 2020 over policing and racial injustice in the United States.

Attorney General Merrick Garland charged four members of the Louisville Metro Police, accusing them of taking actions that led to Taylor’s death during a botched search for a drug dealer she once dated. That included the two officers whose charges are now likely to be dropped, Kyle Meany and Joshua Jaynes, who were not present at the scene of the shooting.

Kristen Clarke, who was the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division when the case was brought, denounced the motion to dismiss the charges. “This move is indefensible and unsupported by the facts and the law,” she said. “It is especially callous that this comes as communities just marked the six-year anniversary of her tragic murder.”

Michael Denbow, Meany’s lawyer, said his client was “incredibly grateful” for the department’s filing and was “looking forward to putting this matter behind him and moving forward with his life.”

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump has sought to rein in or abandon many civil rights cases begun under earlier administrations. The motion was signed by Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the department’s civil rights division, who has abandoned the unit’s historical mission of addressing discrimination and violence rooted in race.

But the case against the two officers had already been weakened before Friday’s filing.

Last August, Judge Charles Simpson III of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky threw out some of the most serious charges against the two officers, including accusations that they had committed violations of federal civil rights laws.

In his ruling, the judge acknowledged that he was “troubled” by the officers’ potential falsification of the warrant, but said the government could not prove that their actions had directly led to Taylor’s death in a hail of police bullets.

He left in place several other lesser charges, including misdemeanor civil rights violations and charges the officers falsified records and conspired to conceal their actions.

Federal prosecutors accused Jaynes of falsifying records to make it appear as if Taylor had a connection to criminal activity, charges that might have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence.

A lawyer for Jaynes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taylor was watching movies in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020, when plainclothes officers battered down the door looking for illegal drugs. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, believing the intruders were robbers, fired a single shot at them with his licensed handgun, and the unarmed Taylor died in the hail of return fire from the officers.

No drugs were found.

Community groups have long accused state officials of refusing to seriously pursue charges against the half-dozen police officers who planned and executed the fatal raid.

Three officers were fired in the aftermath of the killing, including Jaynes, Myles Cosgrove, who fired the fatal shot, and Brett Hankison, who was also present at the raid.

State prosecutors charged Hankison with wanton endangerment for firing 10 bullets through a covered window and glass door, although none of the rounds hit anyone. He was acquitted, prompting widespread calls for federal prosecutions of the officers.

In 2025, a federal jury found Hankison guilty on one count of violating Taylor’s civil rights by using excessive force. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison but released last year on bail pending an appeal.

In 2022, Kelly Goodlett, who worked closely with Meany and Jaynes, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for falsifying an affidavit to obtain the warrant and for lying to criminal investigators. She has yet to be sentenced, according to court records.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.