The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked a federal court in Washington, DC, for permission to submit a confidential declaration explaining why it is withholding certain records relating to allegations linking President Bola Tinubu to a drug-trafficking investigation.
The request was contained in an application dated August 20 and filed before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
The FBI said it could not publicly disclose the full basis for withholding some of the information and asked the court to allow it to present its arguments privately.
An ex parte, in camera declaration is a submission made privately to a judge for consideration without being made available on the public record.
The application was published on X on Thursday by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying firm recently engaged by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
According to the FBI, the records were sought through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests relating to Tinubu and events dating back to 1992 and 1993.
The agency said it had relied on several FOIA exemptions, including exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E) and 7(F), to withhold portions of the requested records.
The FBI argued that releasing the information could expose law-enforcement techniques and procedures and potentially endanger the life or physical safety of individuals.
One of the requests, identified as Request Number 1588244-000, sought the FBI file on Tinubu, while another request, numbered 1593615-000, sought FBI Form 302 interview records involving Tinubu in connection with an FBI case from the 1992–1993 period.
The FBI said it had determined that it could not disclose the full justification for invoking exemptions 7(E) and 7(F) in the public record.
“The FBI has determined that it cannot provide on the public record the full basis for the application of Exemptions 7(E) and 7(F) to certain withholdings and that, therefore, an ex parte, under seal declaration is necessary,” the agency said in its filing.
If the court grants the application, the FBI said it would submit the confidential declaration explaining its reasons 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 follows a dispute over the release of records relating to allegations involving Tinubu. The US Department of Justice had sought an additional 10-day extension to respond to a court order concerning the records, but Judge Beryl Howell granted only four additional days, moving the deadline to August 21.
Tinubu’s legal team subsequently joined the DOJ’s request for the longer extension, but Howell rejected the request.
How the Case Began
Between 2022 and 2023, Greenspan submitted 12 FOIA requests to six US federal agencies seeking records connected to investigations into a Chicago heroin-trafficking ring that operated in the early 1990s.
The requests sought records concerning four individuals whom Greenspan alleged were connected to the investigation, including Tinubu, Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Adegboyega Akande and Abiodun Agbele.
Five of the agencies responded that they could neither confirm nor deny whether the requested records existed, a position commonly referred to as a “Glomar response.”
Greenspan challenged the responses before the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy. However, the OIP upheld the agencies’ decision to neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested records.
On June 12, 2023, Greenspan filed a lawsuit challenging the agencies’ use of the Glomar response in handling his FOIA requests.
The latest FBI application is therefore part of the ongoing legal proceedings over whether additional records relating to the historical investigation should be disclosed.
