President Bola Tinubu has asked a United States court to prevent the release of records held by the US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) relating to allegations of drug trafficking.
The Nigerian president’s legal team filed a 16-page court document opposing efforts by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan to obtain records concerning investigations involving Tinubu.
Tinubu has denied wrongdoing, while the allegations and claims referenced in the legal proceedings have not been established as criminal findings against him.
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Tinubu challenges release of FBI and DEA records
The legal dispute centres on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Greenspan against several US government agencies.
Greenspan is seeking government records that he says relate to investigations involving Tinubu.
Among the documents requested are the FBI’s entire file on Tinubu, as well as FBI Form 302 interview records relating to the period between 1992 and 1993.
The case also involves records reportedly connected to a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding in the United States involving approximately $460,000 linked to Tinubu.
Tinubu’s lawyers argue that releasing the broader investigative files would violate his privacy interests because the requested records contain information that is not already publicly available.
Lawyers argue Tinubu has privacy rights
Tinubu’s legal team, comprising Christopher W. Carmichael, Victor P. Henderson and Oluwole O. Afolabi, argued that previous disclosures connected to the forfeiture proceeding did not eliminate the president’s privacy interests in the government’s wider investigative files.
According to the court filing, documents previously made public did not disclose the details of any possible criminal investigation or its outcome involving Tinubu.
The lawyers argued that Greenspan cannot rely on speculation or labels to establish that the information contained in the requested files is already part of the public record.
They maintained that the purpose of Greenspan’s request was to obtain information precisely because those details had not previously been made public.
Legal team cites US Supreme Court precedent
Tinubu’s lawyers also relied on US Supreme Court precedent to support their argument that an individual can retain privacy interests in an entire government investigative file even when certain information from that file has already been disclosed.
The legal team argued that the public availability of some information does not automatically eliminate privacy protections over other undisclosed details.
They also cited previous court decisions involving government investigative records.
According to the lawyers, being publicly associated with an investigation does not necessarily remove an individual’s right to privacy regarding the contents of government files.
The filing referenced an earlier case involving individuals whose names appeared in publicly available portions of a government report.
Tinubu’s lawyers used the precedent to argue that individuals can still have privacy interests in avoiding disclosure of the details contained in investigative records.
Dispute over FOIA request
The legal battle also involves the scope of Greenspan’s FOIA requests.
Tinubu’s lawyers argued that Greenspan’s filings demonstrate a particular interest in obtaining documents containing Tinubu’s name.
The legal team said such a focus should not give Greenspan access to documents that are otherwise protected from disclosure under FOIA exemptions or the Privacy Act.
They argued that FOIA should not be used to search government files for information about a private individual when the requested material falls within legally protected categories.
The lawyers therefore urged the court to reject Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment.
What Tinubu is asking the court to do
Tinubu’s legal team is asking the court to allow the FBI and DEA to maintain the redactions or withholdings already applied to the requested records.
The filing specifically asks the court to deny Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment and permit the government agencies to maintain their existing decisions regarding the records.
The dispute will ultimately require the court to consider the competing interests involved in the case, including government transparency, freedom of information rights and individual privacy protections.
Allegations remain disputed
The records being sought relate to allegations of drug trafficking and a historical civil forfeiture proceeding.
However, the existence of a request for investigative records does not by itself establish criminal wrongdoing.
Tinubu has denied wrongdoing, and the current court dispute is focused largely on whether government records should be disclosed under US transparency laws and whether privacy protections apply.
The case therefore highlights the tension between public access to government records and the privacy rights of individuals who are the subjects of federal investigations.
For Greenspan, obtaining the records could provide additional information about historical investigations involving Tinubu.
For Tinubu’s legal team, preventing the release of undisclosed investigative material is a matter of protecting legally recognised privacy interests.
The US court will now determine whether the FBI and DEA records should remain redacted or withheld, or whether some or all of the requested documents should ultimately be released.
The outcome could attract significant attention in Nigeria and the United States because of Tinubu’s position as Nigeria’s president and the historical nature of the records at the centre of the dispute.
More information about the Freedom of Information Act is available from the US Department of Justice.
