US court orders FBI, DEA to release Tinubu’s probe records

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration have been ordered by a United States District Court in Columbia to make public documents pertaining to President Bola Tinubu's criminal investigation into alleged drug trafficking.

In an April 8 opinion that is available on the court's website, Judge Beryl Howell ordered both agencies to look for and handle non-exempt documents related to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made by American researcher Aaron Greenspan.

Between 2022 and 2023, Greenspan, the creator of the legal transparency platform PlainSite, filed 12 FOIA requests in an attempt to obtain details about a Chicago narcotics network that was active in the early 1990s.

The FBI and DEA had previously given “Glomar responses”—a denial to acknowledge or deny the existence of sought records—but the court found that such responses were unlawful in this case.

The parties are required to update the court on the case's progress by May 2, 2025, while the FBI and DEA are now required to carry out a search and release non-exempt files.

"Both the FBI and the DEA have formally confirmed investigations of Tinubu relating to the drug trafficking ring," the ruling stated.

"The public interest in the release of such information outweighs any privacy interests implicated by the FOIA requests to the FBI and DEA for records about Tinubu."

The FBI and DEA have not produced any evidence to support the claim that there is a cognizable privacy interest in concealing the fact that Tinubu was the focus of a criminal investigation.

"They have not fulfilled their obligation to uphold their Glomar responses and offer a further justification for their lifting."

After Greenspan admitted that the CIA had admitted the existence of responsive records, the court supported the agency's Glomar answer.

The judge made the following decision: "Defendant CIA is entitled to summary judgment because its Glomar response was properly asserted, while plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment as to each of the four Glomar responses asserted by defendants FBI and DEA for the reasons discussed above."

“Accordingly, the FBI and

In response to FOIA requests made to these agencies, DEA is required to look for and process non-exempt records.

In the meantime, the CIA is entitled to a decision that favors it in this particular case. As stated in the accompanying order, the remaining parties are required to jointly provide a report on the status of any unresolved issues in this case by May 2, 2025.