A U.S. federal court has granted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) permission to submit sensitive records linked to Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for private judicial review in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The development is the latest step in a long-running case brought by American transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan, who is seeking records from U.S. law enforcement agencies relating to investigations involving Tinubu and other individuals in the early 1990s.
The case, Aaron Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys et al., is before Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The FBI filed a motion on August 20 asking the court to allow it to submit declarations and supporting information ex parte and in camera, meaning the materials would be provided to the judge privately and not made available to the other parties or the public.
According to reports on the filing, the FBI said it needed to explain privately why some information should remain withheld under FOIA exemptions concerning law-enforcement information and potential risks to individuals.
The request followed an earlier court directive requiring U.S. agencies to process and release non-exempt records sought by Greenspan.
The FBI’s latest application is not itself a determination that the withheld records contain evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Rather, the court will consider whether the agency’s claimed exemptions meet the requirements of federal FOIA law.
Greenspan filed the lawsuit in 2023 after seeking records from several U.S. agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), CIA and other government bodies.
His requests included records concerning Tinubu and other individuals connected to a Chicago-based investigation from the early 1990s. In an April 2025 ruling, Judge Howell ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and process non-exempt records after rejecting the agencies’ use of so-called Glomar responses, under which agencies neither confirm nor deny the existence of requested records.
The judge’s ruling did not establish that Tinubu committed a criminal offence. Tinubu has denied wrongdoing and has not been convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.
The latest development follows a separate dispute over the timetable for responding to the court’s orders.
Tinubu’s legal team recently joined a request by the U.S. Department of Justice for an additional 10 days to respond to the ongoing proceedings. Judge Howell declined to grant the full extension and instead set August 21 as the deadline for the relevant response.
The President’s participation in the extension request was disclosed by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying and policy advisory firm retained by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The firm has been publicly monitoring and distributing documents from the litigation.
The FBI’s request for in-camera review means Judge Howell will be able to examine the disputed material privately before determining whether the agency is legally entitled to withhold it.
A report on the latest proceedings said the court has given the FBI, DEA, DOJ and Tinubu until August 28, 2026, to file their positions on the release of the records.
The eventual ruling could determine whether additional records connected to the historical investigation are released publicly, released in redacted form, or remain protected under FOIA exemptions.
The case has attracted heightened political attention in Nigeria because of Tinubu’s position as President and Atiku’s involvement through the lobbying firm monitoring the litigation. However, the FOIA proceedings concern access to government records and should not be interpreted as a finding of criminal liability against the Nigerian President.
