Tinubu Asks US Court To Block Release Of FBI, DEA Records

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked a United States federal court to block the release of additional Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records concerning him.

The request was contained in an amended response filed on October 1, 2026, before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the case Aaron Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys et al., Civil Action No. 23-1816.

Why Tinubu Is Opposing Release Of FBI, DEA Files

According to court filings, American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan had asked the court to compel U.S. agencies to release more documents relating to Tinubu under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Greenspan is seeking records connected to federal investigations dating back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Tinubu, through his lawyers, urged the court to uphold the redactions and withholdings made by the FBI and DEA. His legal team argued that the withheld information is protected by privacy provisions under FOIA and the U.S. Privacy Act and does not reveal anything about government activity.

“Regardless, Intervenor should retain his full privacy interests because he was not a public official in 1993”

The quote from Tinubu’s lawyers explains their central argument that the records concern events that occurred over three decades ago when Tinubu was a private citizen and a student, and not a public official. They said FOIA was created to show how agencies perform their duties, not to expose private information about individuals.

FBI, DEA Say Thousands Of Documents Already Released

Tinubu’s legal team told the court that the FBI and DEA had already released thousands of pages of documents in response to Greenspan’s requests, although some portions were redacted. The DEA also provided a Vaughn index which identifies withheld materials and the legal exemptions for withholding them.

The lawyers noted that Greenspan remained dissatisfied and claimed he did not recall seeing the word ‘Tinubu’ on a single page of the released documents. The case also involves a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding in which about $460,000 linked to an account associated with Tinubu was forfeited to the U.S. government.

What The Court Will Decide

The U.S. court has not yet ruled on Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment. The FBI and DEA have also asked the court to grant judgment in their favour, arguing that disclosure could endanger confidential sources and expose law enforcement techniques.

The case is a civil FOIA records dispute and is not a criminal prosecution of President Tinubu. No U.S. court has found him guilty of drug trafficking, and Tinubu has consistently denied any wrongdoing.