A US 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 posted on the court’s website on April 8, required both agencies to search for and process non-exempt data related to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by American scholar Aaron Greenspan.
Greenspan, the inventor of the legal transparency platform PlainSite, filed 12 FOIA requests between 2022 and 2023, seeking information on a Chicago narcotics network that operated in the early 1990s.
His request includes information on Tinubu and three other individuals: The FBI and DEA had previously issued “Glomar responses”—a denial to affirm or deny the existence of sought records—but the court concluded that they were unlawful in this case.
The FBI and DEA have now been ordered to undertake a search and release non-exempt materials, with the parties required to report back to the court on the status of the case 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 the release of such information.
“Since the FBI and DEA have provided no information to establish that a cognisable 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 admitted that the agency had recognised the existence of responsive records.
The judge ruled, “For the reasons discussed above, the plaintiff is entitled to summary judgement as to each of the four Glomar responses asserted by defendants FBI and DEA, while defendant CIA is entitled to summary judgement 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 judgement 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.”
