The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked a federal court for permission to submit a confidential declaration explaining why it is withholding some records relating to allegations linking President Bola Tinubu to a drug-trafficking investigation.
The FBI made the request in an application dated August 20 before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, saying it could not publicly disclose the full reasons for withholding some of the information.
An ex parte, in camera declaration is a submission made privately to a judge for consideration and kept from the public record.
The application was published on X on Thursday by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying firm recently hired by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
The FBI said it had relied on several exemptions under the US Freedom of Information Act in response to requests for records relating to Tinubu from 1992 to 1993.
According to the agency, releasing the withheld information could disclose law-enforcement techniques and procedures and potentially endanger the life or physical safety of an individual.
The FBI said one of the requests sought the “entire FBI file” on Tinubu, while another requested FBI Form 302 interview records involving him in connection with an FBI case between 1992 and 1993.
The agency said it had applied FOIA Exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E) and 7(F) to the requests. It said some of the withheld information could reveal investigative techniques and procedures or reasonably be expected to endanger an individual.
The FBI further told the court that it could not disclose publicly the full basis for relying on Exemptions 7(E) and 7(F) for some of the withheld records. It therefore asked to submit a confidential declaration under seal.
The agency said that, if the court granted the request, it would submit the declaration explaining the basis for withholding the information by August 28.
The plaintiff in the case is Aaron Greenspan, an American businessman and founder of PlainSite.
The latest development followed a request by the US Department of Justice for an additional 10-day extension to comply with a court order concerning the release of records linked to the allegations involving Tinubu.
However, Judge Beryl Howell granted only a four-day extension, moving the deadline to August 21. Tinubu, through his legal team, subsequently joined the DOJ’s request for an additional 10-day extension, but Howell rejected the request.
Between 2022 and 2023, Greenspan filed 12 FOIA requests with six US federal agencies seeking records relating to investigations into a Chicago heroin ring that operated in the early 1990s.
He sought records concerning four individuals whom he said were linked to the drug ring, including Tinubu, Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Adegboyega Akande and Abiodun Agbele.
Five of the agencies responded that they could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested records.
Greenspan subsequently challenged the responses before the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy, but the OIP upheld the agencies’ refusal to confirm or deny the existence of the records, according to court documents.
On June 12, 2023, Greenspan filed a lawsuit challenging the agencies’ use of what is known as a Glomar response to his FOIA requests.
A Glomar response is an official refusal by a US government agency to confirm or deny whether requested records exist.
The FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Executive Office for United States Attorneys and Department of State were initially named as defendants. The Central Intelligence Agency was later added in an amended complaint.
In April 2025, Howell ruled that the responses issued by the FBI and DEA were “improper and must be lifted”.
The judge held that the two agencies had failed to establish sufficient privacy interests to justify keeping secret the fact that Tinubu was a subject of a criminal investigation.
Howell also ruled that the FBI and DEA had failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify maintaining their Glomar responses.
