NEW YORK – A federal investigation into the police chokehold death of Eric Garner is moving forward in New York, but its future could be up in the air as a new U.S. attorney general with a law-and-order bent takes over the Justice Department.
Two people with inside knowledge of the probe say a grand jury in Brooklyn met as late as last week to hear evidence in the deadly confrontation between Garner and police on Staten Island in 2014. Garner's dying words, "I can't breathe," became a slogan for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Both people were not authorized to discuss the secret proceedings and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
New Attorney General Jeff Sessions had accused the Justice Department under the Obama administration of overstepping its authority and undermining police.
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Associated Press writers Colleen Long in New York and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
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