President Bola Tinubu has asked a United States federal court to prevent the release of records held by the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) relating to historical investigations involving him.
The request was contained in a 16-page court filing submitted on Tinubu’s behalf on Aug. 28 in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by American transparency activist, Aaron Greenspan.
The case, Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and others, is pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Greenspan is seeking the release of documents relating to investigations involving Tinubu, including the FBI’s entire file on him and FBI Form 302 interview records concerning the period between 1992 and 1993.
The case also concerns records connected to a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding in the United States involving about $460,000.
Tinubu has denied any wrongdoing.
In the filing, Tinubu’s legal team argued that the release of the requested records could infringe on his privacy rights.
The legal team, comprising Christopher W. Carmichael, Victor P. Henderson and Oluwole O. Afolabi, asked the court to deny Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment.
They also urged the court to allow redactions and withholdings made by the FBI and DEA to remain in place.
According to the filing, the fact that some information relating to the forfeiture proceeding may have entered the public domain does not remove Tinubu’s privacy interest in information contained in investigative files that remains undisclosed.
The lawyers argued that existing public records did not disclose the full details or outcome of any possible criminal investigation involving Tinubu.
They further contended that an individual could retain privacy interests in undisclosed portions of an investigative file even where some information from the same matter had previously been made public.
The filing also argued that Greenspan’s FOIA requests were primarily aimed at obtaining documents containing Tinubu’s name and that the court should not permit the release of information otherwise protected under applicable FOIA exemptions or the Privacy Act.
“For all the foregoing reasons, Intervenor requests that the Court deny Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and allow the redactions or withholdings made by the FBI and DEA to stand,” Tinubu’s legal team stated in its conclusion.
The legal battle follows an April 2025 ruling in which the U.S. District Court held that the FBI and DEA could not continue to neither confirm nor deny the existence of certain records relating to Tinubu and were required to process the relevant FOIA requests, subject to applicable exemptions.
The court has yet to determine whether the specific records being disputed in the latest filing should be released, withheld or further redacted.
