The Justice Department under President Donald Trump on Friday moved to dismiss charges against two former Louisville police officers accused of falsifying the warrant that led to the 2020 raid in which Breonna Taylor was killed.
Federal prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the case with prejudice against former Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany, arguing that the charges should be “dismissed in the interest of justice” following a renewed internal review, according to a court filing on Friday to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Louisville.
The case had already been on shaky legal footing after repeated rulings during the Biden administration. Prosecutors originally brought the indictment in August 2023, alleging a felony civil rights violation under 18 U.S.C. § 242. But in August 2024, a federal judge struck the felony allegations and reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, finding the government had not sufficiently linked the alleged false statements in the warrant to Taylor’s death.
Rather than appeal, Biden-era prosecutors pursued a superseding indictment in October 2024 in an attempt to bolster the case with additional factual allegations. That effort also failed. In August, the court again struck the felony component, once more reducing the charge to a misdemeanor and dealing a second blow to the prosecution’s central theory.
Following that ruling, the Trump administration’s DOJ conducted a further review and ultimately opted to abandon the case altogether. Prosecutors said the decision was made in the exercise of their discretion after considering the procedural history and legal limitations highlighted by the court.
Attorneys for Jaynes and Meany were notified of the motion and do not oppose dismissal, according to the filing, which was signed by Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon and Acting Chief of the Criminal Section, Katie Neff.
The charges centered on allegations that Jaynes falsified information in a warrant affidavit tied to a no-knock drug raid targeting a suspect who no longer lived at Taylor’s apartment, while Meany was accused of approving the warrant despite the alleged inaccuracies. The March 2020 raid ended when Taylor’s boyfriend fired at officers, who returned fire and fatally shot Taylor.
Taylor’s death became a national flashpoint and coincided with public outcry in 2020 over the death of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter protests and riots that followed. Her death led to sweeping federal civil rights investigations during the Biden administration, including charges against multiple officers involved in the case.
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The DOJ has also sought the release of the only officer currently serving prison time related to Taylor’s death, Brett Hankison, while his appeal is pending. The Federal Bureau of Prisons shows he has not been in BOP custody as of December 19.
A federal judge has not yet ruled on the motion to dismiss.