Graves Garrett Greim (GGG) announced a significant victory for its client, Maer Malinowski, in her civil suit against the United States arising from the fatal 2024 ATF raid that killed her husband, Bryan K. Malinowski, then-executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In a detailed order issued June 17, 2026, U.S. District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky denied the government’s motion to dismiss on eight of nine claims brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, including wrongful death, assault and battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and multiple claims under the Arkansas Victim of Felonies Act. Under facts largely not in dispute, the Court found Ms. Malinowski plausibly alleged that ATF agents violated the Fourth Amendment’s knock-and-announce requirement before forcing entry into the Malinowski home, and that agents may have been the initial aggressors in the encounter that led to Mr. Malinowski’s death, findings that defeated the government’s principal defenses at this stage of the case.

“This ruling allows the core of Ms. Malinowski’s case to move forward,” said Nathan Garrett, who leads GGG’s trial team on the matter alongside Arkansas co-counsel Bud
Cummins, Paul James, Matt Stauffer, and Deborah Truby Riordan. “The Court’s careful analysis recognized what the complaint plausibly alleges: that this tragedy resulted
from law enforcement’s own unconstitutional conduct, not from anything Mr. Malinowski did in his own home.”

The case, filed in the Eastern District of Arkansas, will continue toward discovery on the surviving claims.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform continues to seek testimony from GGG attorneys and their client to help review the
broader issues related to the case, after having already — largely in bipartisan fashion — expressed grave concerns over the case. In addition to Garrett and GGG partner Lucinda Luetkemeyer, GGG associate Hallie Beal also represents the plaintiff.

The Malinowski case continues to receive extensive media coverage, including this recent Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article.