The day before the fifth anniversary of Eric Garner's death, federal prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo with violating Garner's civil rights. They added: The Justice Department's case is now closed.

But the lawyer for Eric Garner's family says, not so fast.

"This claim can still be brought," the lawyer, Jonathan Moore, says. 

Moore told NY1 Wednesday that once President Trump leaves office, he will ask the next administration to re-open the chokehold case.

"There is no statute of limitation on the federal civil rights claims for conduct that results in the death of an individual," he says.

Several lawyers and former federal prosecutors tell NY1, they agree.

They said there is a five-year deadline to file federal civil rights charges when a police officer's willful and wrongful conduct causes "bodily injury" to someone But they said there's no deadline to file charges when the victim dies.

"In order for the Justice Department to actually be able to re-open and bring a case, they'd have to be able to prove that officer Pantaleo's actions resulted in the death of Eric Garner,” said Alan Vinegrad, a former federal prosecutor. “In that situation, there would be no statute of limitations. Otherwise, there is a five-year statute and the case is over."

Garner died as officers arrested him on Staten Island for allegedly selling loose cigarettes.

In announcing the Justice Department's decision not to indict Pantaleo, U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said the police officer tried to subdue Garner with two approved NYPD techniques, but ended up putting Garner in a chokehold for seven seconds as they fell to the ground.

He said the evidence did not show beyond a reasonable doubt that Pantaleo used unreasonable force, willfully violated the law, and caused "bodily injury" to Garner - the threshold for a conviction.

Experts say if new evidence emerged about the incident then that could be a real game changer, but absent that, a new administration would be reluctant to re-open the case.

"If Officer Pantaleo is ever charged, I think he would turn around and say, ‘How can you charge me, Justice Department?  You yourself said before that you couldn't prove the case,’" Vinegrad says.

And because more than five years have passed, instead of proving Pantaleo caused bodily injury to Garner, prosecutors would have to prove he caused Garner's death.

Pantaleo's Attorney, Stuart London, says, in his view, the federal case is over and the officer can't be charged.