The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked a federal court in Washington, DC, to allow it to privately explain why it withheld some records relating to investigations involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In a motion filed on August 20, the FBI said it could not fully disclose in open court the reasons behind its decision to withhold portions of the records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The agency wants permission to submit an ex parte, in camera declaration, a confidential document that would be reviewed privately by the judge.
The request is part of a lawsuit filed by Aaron Greenspan, founder of PlainSite, who has been seeking records from US agencies concerning investigations into an alleged Chicago heroin trafficking operation in the early 1990s.
The FBI said it had relied on several FOIA exemptions, including exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E) and 7(F), to withhold information requested by Greenspan.
According to the bureau, releasing the material could expose law-enforcement investigative techniques and procedures and could also “reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.”
The agency said one of Greenspan's requests, numbered 1588244-000, sought the “entire FBI file” on Tinubu, identified in the request as Nigeria's president-elect as of February 2023.
Another request, numbered 1593615-000, sought FBI Form 302 interview records involving Tinubu in connection with FBI Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU between 1992 and 1993.
The FBI said it had determined that it could not place the complete basis for its reliance on exemptions 7(E) and 7(F) on the public record.
It therefore asked the court to permit the submission of a sealed declaration explaining the basis for withholding the disputed information.
If the court grants the request, the FBI said it would submit the declaration before August 28.
The filing was published on X by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying firm recently hired by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 election.
The development is the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over access to US government records concerning allegations linking Tinubu to a drug-trafficking investigation.
DOJ seeks more time
The FBI's application comes shortly after the US Department of Justice sought an additional 10 days to respond to a court order concerning the release of records relating to the allegations against Tinubu.
Judge Beryl Howell, however, granted only a four-day extension, setting August 21 as the new deadline.
Tinubu later joined the Justice Department's request for an additional 10 days through his lawyers.
Howell reportedly rejected the request for the longer extension.
How the case began
Greenspan submitted 12 FOIA requests to six US federal agencies in 2022 and 2023, seeking records from criminal investigations into a Chicago heroin ring that operated in the early 1990s.
His requests concerned four individuals whom he alleged were connected to the investigation: Tinubu, Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande and Abiodun Agbele.
The FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Executive Office for United States Attorneys and Department of State were initially among the agencies named in the lawsuit. The CIA was later added after Greenspan amended his complaint.
The agencies initially issued what is known as a Glomar response, refusing to confirm or deny whether the requested records existed.
Greenspan challenged the agencies' positions before the Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy, but the office upheld the refusals.
He subsequently filed a lawsuit on June 12, 2023, challenging the agencies' responses.
In April 2025, Judge Howell ruled that the Glomar responses issued by the FBI and DEA were improper and should be lifted.
The judge said the agencies had failed to establish that Tinubu had a cognisable privacy interest in keeping secret the fact that he was a subject of a criminal investigation.
Howell also found that the FBI and DEA had not provided sufficient evidence to justify maintaining their refusal to confirm or deny whether the requested records existed.
The latest FBI application, however, concerns specific information it has already withheld rather than a blanket refusal to acknowledge the existence of records.
The bureau is asking the court to examine its detailed justification privately, arguing that publicly disclosing the reasons for some of the exemptions could itself expose sensitive investigative methods or create risks to individuals.
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