Washington DC - The US Department of Justice announced Wednesday it was dropping lawsuits regarding police violence filed in the aftermath of high-profile killings of Black people in 2020.

The investigations, launched by the administration of former President Joe Biden, were prompted by the murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, both Black Americans whose deaths at the hands of police spurred widespread Black Lives Matter protests that summer.

The Justice Department, now under President Donald Trump, said in a statement Wednesday it was "beginning the process of dismissing lawsuits against the Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis, Minnesota police departments."

It claimed the lawsuits were "wrongly equating statistical disparities with intentional discrimination and heavily relying on flawed methodologies and incomplete data."

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The DOJ also claimed that the reforms from the investigations go beyond accusations of excessive use of force and discrimination instead resulting in "micromanagement" of law enforcement "by federal courts and expensive independent monitors."

Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, said in a statement the decision was "a slap in the face to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor... and to every community that has endured the trauma of police violence and the false promises of accountability."

"The DOJ is not just rolling back reform, it is attempting to erase truth and contradicting the very principles for which justice stands," he added.

In addition to the proceedings involving Louisville and Minneapolis, the DOJ Civil Rights Division intends to revisit investigations into excessive use of force by police in five other cities, including Phoenix, Arizona, and Memphis, Tennessee; as well as the Louisiana State Police.