*Rejects Justice Department, President’s Request For 10-Day Delay In Release
A UNITED States (US) District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the release of records relating to alleged drug-trafficking investigations involving Tinubu and his former associate, Abiodun Agbele.
The order, issued by Judge Beryl Howell, directed relevant US government agencies, including the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to comply with the disclosure request.
This was disclosed in a post on X by Batten-Montague-York.
The case centres on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by American activist and researcher, Aaron Greenspan, seeking records concerning Tinubu and Agbele.
The latest development follows the involvement of Jeanine Pirro, a newly appointed US attorney under President Donald Trump, in the case, who reportedly sought an additional 10 days to comply with the court’s directive.
However, Howell granted only four days, noting that the case had been pending for over three years in the legal battle over the release of records allegedly held by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies concerning Tinubu and Agbele.
In a ruling in July last year, Howell rejected attempts by the FBI and DEA to withhold the existence of certain records by invoking what is known as a “Glomar response,” which allows a US government agency to refuse to confirm or deny whether it possesses records relating to a person or matter when doing so could itself cause harm protected under a FOIA exemption.
Howell, however, held that the agencies’ reliance on the Glomar response was no longer sustainable in the circumstances of the case.
He ruled: “Since it was acknowledged that Tinubu was a subject of an investigation involving both the FBI and DEA, the claim that the Glomar responses were necessary to protect this information from public disclosure is at this point neither logical nor plausible.”
The Judge explained that a FOIA requester could challenge an agency’s Glomar response in two principal ways- by challenging the agency’s claim that confirming or denying the existence of records would result in a legally recognisable harm under a FOIA exemption, and by demonstrating that the agency had previously “officially acknowledged” otherwise exempt information, thereby waiving its right to rely on the exemption in respect of that information.
In Greenspan’s case, Howell said he had advanced both arguments.
According to the ruling, Greenspan argued, among other things, that the DEA had officially confirmed an investigation into Agbele’s alleged involvement in a drug-trafficking operation, while the FBI and DEA had also acknowledged investigations relating to Tinubu.
He further argued that any privacy interests associated with the requested records were outweighed by the public interest in their disclosure and that the CIA had acknowledged possessing records responsive to his request concerning Tinubu.
The case dates back to allegations surrounding a 1993 forfeiture of $460,000 by Tinubu to the US authorities.
The money was reportedly seized by US authorities and forfeited in connection with an investigation into suspected narcotics proceeds.
Tinubu has consistently denied wrongdoing and has not been convicted of any drug-related offence in the United States.
The Presidency, in response to previous reports concerning the records, said the allegations were not new and did not establish criminal wrongdoing by the President.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, had previously said the information contained in the FBI and DEA records had been in the public domain for decades and did not indict Tinubu.
The issue resurfaced during the 2023 presidential election litigation after the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, raised questions concerning Tinubu’s past in the United States.
The allegations were considered during the legal challenges to Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 presidential election, but the Presidential Election Petition Court rejected the challenges and upheld Tinubu’s election.
The Supreme Court subsequently affirmed the judgment of the tribunal, dismissing the appeals against Tinubu’s victory.
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has joined the United States (US) Department of Justice’s request for a 10-day extension to respond to a motion seeking the release of records relating to allegations of drug trafficking.
Tinubu’s legal team had filed a notice of joinder before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asking to be placed on the same schedule as the defendants in the case.
The filing was published online by Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., a US-based policy advisory and lobbying firm retained by former vice president, Atiku Abubakar.
In the notice, Tinubu’s lawyers said they were joining the defendants’ motion for a 10-day extension to file a response to the motion for summary judgment.
According to the filling: “Intervenor joins Defendants’ motion for a 10-day extension of time to file response to the motion for summary judgment (DE 92), inasmuch as Intervenor requests that the responses remain on the same schedule.”
In the notice was signed by Christopher W. Carmichael and Victor P. Henderson of Henderson Parks, LLC, the plaintiff opposed the extension request, while the defendant did not.
In a post on X, Batten-Montague-York alleged that Tinubu could use the additional time to lobby US officials against the release of the records on the grounds that their disclosure could affect US-Nigeria relations and his cooperation with the US on security matters.
The firm warned against attempts by the US government officials to interfere with the judicial or Freedom of Information Act process, even as it welcomed the August 21 deadline for the release of US government records, saying the Trump administration will not protect an alleged drug trafficker.
Batten-Montague-York, in a post on X, contrasted the Trump administration with the administration of former US President, Joe Biden, accusing the Biden-era DOJ of fighting the release of Freedom of Information Act records concerning allegations involving Tinubu.
“Unlike Biden’s DOJ, which fought the release of FOIA records concerning drug-trafficking allegations involving Tinubu, the DOJ under Trump will never protect an alleged drug trafficker,” he wrote.
He also accused the Biden DOJ of pursuing Trump while resisting the release of records concerning Tinubu, saying: “They went after President Trump while fighting the release of records concerning Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, a man accused in federal records of involvement in heroin trafficking.”
The latest US court order does not itself establish that Tinubu committed a drug-related offence, rather, it concerns the disclosure of government records sought under the FOIA.
The nature and contents of any records eventually released by the US authorities will, therefore, determine whether they contain new information beyond material that has previously entered the public domain.
The records are expected to shed further light on the investigations and the basis for the agencies’ earlier refusal to confirm or deny the existence of certain documents.
