The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration have been ordered by a United States District Court in Columbia to make public documents about President Bola Tinubu’s criminal investigation into alleged drug trafficking.
In an April 8 opinion that is available on the court’s website, Judge Beryl Howell ordered both agencies to look for and handle non-exempt documents related to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made by American researcher Aaron Greenspan.
Between 2022 and 2023, Greenspan, the creator of the legal transparency platform PlainSite, filed 12 FOIA requests in an attempt to get details on a Chicago narcotics network that was active in the early 1990s.
Records on Tinubu and three other people—Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele—were included in his request.
The court decided that the FBI and DEA’s “Glomar responses,” which were a refusal to acknowledge or deny the existence of sought information, were inappropriate in this particular case.
The parties are required to update the court on the case’s progress by May 2, 2025, while the FBI and DEA are now required to carry out a search and provide non-exempt files.
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 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.”
After Greenspan admitted that the CIA had admitted the existence of relevant documents, the court supported the agency’s Glomar answer.
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The judge made the following decision: “Defendant CIA is entitled to summary judgement because its Glomar response was properly asserted, while plaintiff is entitled to summary judgement as to each of the four Glomar responses asserted by defendants FBI and DEA for the reasons discussed above.”
“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.”
