diff --git a/pkg/cmd/attestation/download/download.go b/pkg/cmd/attestation/download/download.go
index 2a297bc9a..86cf08d72 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/attestation/download/download.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/attestation/download/download.go
@@ -144,10 +144,9 @@ func runDownload(opts *Options) error {
 
 	// Apply predicate type filter to returned attestations
 	if opts.PredicateType != "" {
-		filteredAttestations := verification.FilterAttestations(opts.PredicateType, attestations)
-
-		if len(filteredAttestations) == 0 {
-			return fmt.Errorf("no attestations found with predicate type: %s", opts.PredicateType)
+		filteredAttestations, err := verification.FilterAttestations(opts.PredicateType, attestations)
+		if err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("failed to filter attestations: %v", err)
 		}
 
 		attestations = filteredAttestations
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation.go b/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation.go
index 9757b72c5..ba357a5cc 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation.go
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ type IntotoStatement struct {
 	PredicateType string `json:"predicateType"`
 }
 
-func FilterAttestations(predicateType string, attestations []*api.Attestation) []*api.Attestation {
+func FilterAttestations(predicateType string, attestations []*api.Attestation) ([]*api.Attestation, error) {
 	filteredAttestations := []*api.Attestation{}
 
 	for _, each := range attestations {
@@ -118,5 +118,9 @@ func FilterAttestations(predicateType string, attestations []*api.Attestation) [
 		}
 	}
 
-	return filteredAttestations
+	if len(filteredAttestations) == 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("no attestations found with predicate type: %s", predicateType)
+	}
+
+	return filteredAttestations, nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation_test.go b/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation_test.go
index 8acff0c37..55a447cf4 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation_test.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification/attestation_test.go
@@ -157,10 +157,11 @@ func TestFilterAttestations(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 	}
 
-	filtered := FilterAttestations("https://slsa.dev/provenance/v1", attestations)
-
+	filtered, err := FilterAttestations("https://slsa.dev/provenance/v1", attestations)
 	require.Len(t, filtered, 1)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
 
-	filtered = FilterAttestations("NonExistentPredicate", attestations)
+	filtered, err = FilterAttestations("NonExistentPredicate", attestations)
 	require.Len(t, filtered, 0)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/attestation/verify/attestation.go b/pkg/cmd/attestation/verify/attestation.go
index f91526bbd..c09b433b0 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/attestation/verify/attestation.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/attestation/verify/attestation.go
@@ -9,16 +9,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/cli/cli/v2/pkg/cmd/attestation/verification"
 )
 
-func filterByPredicateType(predicateType string, attestations []*api.Attestation) ([]*api.Attestation, string, error) {
-	// Apply predicate type filter to returned attestations
-	filteredAttestations := verification.FilterAttestations(predicateType, attestations)
-	if len(filteredAttestations) == 0 {
-		msg := fmt.Sprintf("✗ No attestations found with predicate type: %s\n", predicateType)
-		return nil, msg, fmt.Errorf("no matching predicate found")
-	}
-	return filteredAttestations, "", nil
-}
-
 func getAttestations(o *Options, a artifact.DigestedArtifact) ([]*api.Attestation, string, error) {
 	if o.FetchAttestationsFromGitHubAPI() {
 		params := api.FetchParams{
@@ -58,9 +48,9 @@ func getAttestations(o *Options, a artifact.DigestedArtifact) ([]*api.Attestatio
 		return nil, errMsg, err
 	}
 
-	filtered, errMsg, err := filterByPredicateType(o.PredicateType, attestations)
+	filtered, err := verification.FilterAttestations(o.PredicateType, attestations)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, errMsg, err
+		return nil, err.Error(), err
 	}
 
 	pluralAttestation := text.Pluralize(len(filtered), "attestation")