diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/data/shared.py b/src/axolotl/utils/data/shared.py
index e657262b9..9c38983be 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/data/shared.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/data/shared.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Optional, Union
 
 from datasets import Dataset, DatasetDict, load_dataset, load_from_disk
-from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download, snapshot_download
+from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
 from huggingface_hub.errors import (
     HFValidationError,
     RepositoryNotFoundError,
@@ -251,35 +251,7 @@ def load_dataset_w_config(
             trust_remote_code=config_dataset.trust_remote_code,
             **load_ds_kwargs,
         )
-    elif config_dataset.data_files:
-        fp: str | list[str] | None = None
-        if isinstance(config_dataset.data_files, str):
-            fp = hf_hub_download(
-                repo_id=config_dataset.path,
-                repo_type="dataset",
-                filename=config_dataset.data_files,
-                revision=config_dataset.revision,
-            )
-        elif isinstance(config_dataset.data_files, list):
-            fp = []
-            for file in config_dataset.data_files:
-                fp.append(
-                    hf_hub_download(
-                        repo_id=config_dataset.path,
-                        repo_type="dataset",
-                        filename=file,
-                        revision=config_dataset.revision,
-                    )
-                )
-        else:
-            raise ValueError("data_files must be either a string or list of strings")
-        ds = load_dataset(
-            "json",
-            name=config_dataset.name,
-            data_files=fp,
-            streaming=streaming,
-            **load_ds_kwargs,
-        )
+
     if not ds:
         raise ValueError("unhandled dataset load")