A United States District Court in Columbia has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, to release records relating to the criminal investigation of President Bola Tinubu over alleged drug trafficking.
Judge Beryl Howell, in a ruling dated April 8, which can be found on the court’s website, directed both agencies to search for and process non-exempt records tied to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by American researcher Aaron Greenspan.
Greenspan, founder of legal transparency platform PlainSite, had submitted 12 FOIA requests between 2022 and 2023, seeking information on a Chicago drug ring that operated in the early 1990s.
His request included records on Tinubu and three others: Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele.
The FBI and DEA had previously issued “Glomar responses”—a refusal to confirm or deny the existence of requested records—but the court ruled that such responses were improper in this case.
The FBI and DEA have now been ordered to conduct a search and release non-exempt materials, while the parties are to report back to the court on the case’s status by May 2, 2025.
The judgment read, “The FBI and DEA have both officially confirmed investigations of Tinubu relating to the drug trafficking ring.
“Any privacy interests implicated by the FOIA requests to the FBI and DEA for records about Tinubu are overcome by the public interest in release of such
information.
“Since the FBI and DEA have provided no information to establish that a cognizable privacy interest exists in keeping secret the fact that Tinubu was a subject of criminal investigation.
“They have failed to meet their burden to sustain their Glomar responses and provide an additional reason why these responses must be lifted.”
The court upheld the CIA’s Glomar response after Greenspan conceded that the agency had acknowledged the existence of responsive records.
The judge ruled, “For the reasons discussed above, plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment as to each of the four Glomar responses asserted by defendants FBI and DEA, while defendant CIA is entitled to summary judgment, since its Glomar response was properly asserted.
“Accordingly, the FBI and
DEA must search for and process non-exempt records responsive to the FOIA requests directed to these agencies.
“The CIA, meanwhile, is entitled to judgment in its favour in this case. The remaining parties are directed to file jointly, by May 2, 2025, a report on the status of any outstanding issues in this case, as described in the accompanying order.”
