The Presidency has responded to a United States court ruling that ordered American law enforcement agencies to release confidential information relating to President Bola Tinubu, generated during a purported federal investigation in the 1990s.
The order was handed down by Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who ruled that the FBI and DEA must release the documents, stating that the continued secrecy was “neither logical nor plausible.”
Premium Times reported that the ruling followed a lawsuit filed in June 2023 by U.S. citizen Aaron Greenspan, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Greenspan sued multiple agencies, including the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), FBI, DEA, IRS, Department of State, and later, the CIA. He alleged that these agencies failed to respond adequately to 12 FOIA requests he submitted between 2022 and 2023, seeking documents on President Tinubu and others linked to a heroin trafficking network in Chicago during the 1990s.
The agencies responded with “Glomar” denials—refusals to confirm or deny whether such records exist.
Greenspan contested those responses and later filed an emergency motion in October 2023, urging a speedy release of the records ahead of a Supreme Court hearing in Nigeria challenging Tinubu’s election. That motion was denied. Tinubu subsequently moved to intervene in the suit, citing privacy concerns over the release of his tax and law enforcement records. Despite this, Judge Howell found that the Glomar responses by the FBI and DEA were improper, given that both agencies had already officially acknowledged investigations involving Tinubu.
