Tinubu FBI Records Endanger Life: Bureau Seeks Secret Court Review Of Withheld Files
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked a federal court in Washington, D.C., for permission to submit confidential declarations under seal and privately explain the basis for withholding records relating to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The request was contained in a four-page motion filed on August 20, 2026, in the case of Aaron Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, et al., Civil Action No. 23-1816 (BAH), before U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell.
The FBI is seeking leave to submit the declarations “ex parte” and “in camera” in support of the U.S. government’s motion for summary judgment in the underlying Freedom of Information Act case. An ex parte in camera declaration is a written statement submitted solely to a judge by a party in a legal case, allowing the agency to explain its position without disclosing it to the opposing side.
The records being sought include Tinubu’s FBI file and interview records from the 1990s. One FOIA request, identified as Request Number 1588244-000, sought “the entire FBI file for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, DOB 3/29/1952, President-Elect of Nigeria as of February 2023.” A separate FOIA request sought “FBI 302 interviews with Bola Tinubu from FBI Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU during the timeframe 1992-1993,” assigned Request Number 1593615-000.
The FBI has invoked various FOIA exemptions, including 6, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E) and 7(F), regarding these requests, and determined that the information withheld, if disclosed, would among other things disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations and could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of an individual. The agency said it could not publicly disclose the full reasons for withholding some of the records because doing so could expose sensitive law-enforcement techniques and procedures. If the court grants the request, the FBI said it would provide the declaration before August 28.
The case traces back to an earlier ruling in April 2025, when Judge Howell held that the responses issued by the FBI and DEA were “improper and must be lifted,” finding that the two agencies had failed to establish that a cognisable privacy interest existed in keeping secret the fact that Tinubu was a subject of criminal investigation. The records concern a historical drug-trafficking investigation and a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding involving funds linked to Tinubu, spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s. Tinubu has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with the underlying allegations.
The lawsuit was filed by Aaron Greenspan, founder of the transparency platform PlainSite. A copy of the FBI’s latest motion was drawn attention to by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying firm retained by former Vice President and ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, which claimed in an August 21 post on X that the reference to information that could endanger someone’s life or physical safety showed that Tinubu was concerned about his own safety if the records were released. The firm’s characterisation of Tinubu’s alleged intentions was presented as its own inference and was not established by the court filing itself.
The latest filing comes just days after Tinubu formally joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for a 10-day extension to respond to the motion for summary judgment in the same case, with a separate court order earlier setting August 21 as a revised deadline tied to the broader records dispute. As of the time of filing, neither the Nigerian Presidency nor Tinubu’s legal representatives had issued a fresh statement specifically addressing the FBI’s latest request for a secret court review, and it remained unclear whether Judge Howell had ruled on the motion.
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