Angry U.S. judge lambasts FBI, DEA for delaying release of Tinubu’s criminal records, issues final ultimatum
The judge ordered the FBI to provide sworn statements on why it has been missing deadlines to frustrate the release of Mr Tinubu’s records.
U.S. judge Beryl A. Howell lashed out at the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration for employing delay tactics to frustrate the release of President Bola Tinubu’s records based on a 2022 Freedom of Information request by transparency campaigner Aaron Greenspan, who was assisted by investigative journalist David Hundeyin.
Ms Howell of the U.S. Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., on February 3, rebuked the FBI and DEA for holding up the release of Mr Tinubu’s records, expected to shed light on a narcotics-trafficking ordeal that made him surrender $460,000 to the U.S. government in the early 1990s. Mr Greenspan, CEO of Plainsite, a data transparency advocacy group, first filed the FOI in June 2022.
The sluggishness of the FBI and DEA to honour court submissions, with incessant postponements, has caused the case to linger for more than three years without any headway in sight, Ms Howell said in her opinion, while issuing fresh ultimatums that must not be missed, according to court filings seen by Peoples Gazette.
The FBI in 2023 announced plans to release 2500 pages of Mr Tinubu’s records in monthly batches of 500 pages. But the release was stalled after Mr Tinubu fiercely opposed it and sought a reprieve to protect his records, pending a Nigerian Supreme Court judgment that he was then praying to uphold his election victory. He claimed that he would be “adversely affected” if his FBI records were released prematurely.
Ms Beryl approved his request then, but even though Mr Tinubu’s presidential victory was upheld, the FBI and DEA continued to delay, begging for new dates to process and release the long-sought records anticipated to clarify the decades-long controversy about Mr Tinubu’s role in a cocaine trafficking scheme. The Nigerian president denies any wrongdoing.
The bureau, which ought to submit an updated report in May 2025, adjourned for several months until January 2026, when it requested a new date for February. The latest motion to extend the processing and submission date to February provoked the ire of Ms Howell.
“Defendant FBI has produced no records, despite initially anticipating completion of searches by August 1, 2025, Joint Status Report (May 1, 2025), later pushed to September 1, 2025, [51] Joint Status Report (June 30, 2025); and production to begin by December 1, 2025, [51] Joint Status Report (June 30, 2025), later pushed to January 23, 2026, [62] Joint Status Report (December 1, 2025), and pushed again, with minimal explanation, to February 13, 2025,” Ms Howell said.
“Similar to the current posture of the DEA in this case, the FBI has provided no reliable end date for the processing and production of responsive records,” the judge stressed.
Ms Beryl shot down the DEA’s argument to have released some documents while withholding other pages for over six months. The DEA claimed that the so-called files were “out for consult” with other agencies but failed to state when the documents could be available to Mr Greenspan.
“Defendant DEA has produced some documents; see [54] Joint Status Report (August 7, 2025), but has parroted the same message for the past six months and four joint status reports regarding twelve remaining pages not yet produced,” the judge said.
Consequently, she ordered the DEA to furnish Mr Greenspan with a Vaughn index detailing the reasons for redacting 50 pages and withholding 172 pages of Mr Tinubu’s records.
For the separate 12 records sent to unspecified agencies, Judge Howell ordered that a DEA agent must file sworn affidavits explaining, page by page, when each record was sent to the agencies for consultation, when the review is expected to be completed, and the steps taken so far to expedite the release of Mr Tinubu’s records.
Ms Howell ordered the FBI to provide sworn statements explaining why the bureau has been missing crucial deadlines to frustrate the release of Mr Tinubu’s records as requested by Mr Greenspan.
The judge further asked the FBI to turn over all non-exempt documents concerning Mr Tinubu, as the bureau promised to do in availing Mr Greenspan “its first interim response within two weeks of January 30, 2026.”
The FBI was further directed to provide a timetable detailing how the bureau intends to submit the second batch of 500 pages by March 13 and ensure that the last batch will be released by June 1, 2026.
“Submit to the court a detailed status report on how the FBI is fulfilling its representation that ‘the second interim response is anticipated for March 13, 2026,’ id., with production of segregable non-exempt information at the rate of 500 pages reviewed per month, and a plan to complete such processing and production by June 1, 2026,” court filings stated.
The judge asked both the FBI and DEA to file a joint status report on their progress “every 14 days” starting February 27, until all processing and production of responsive records is completed.”
In April 2025, the judge granted CIA’s motion to be left out of the case after successfully arguing that there was no evidence the agency had collected any intelligence on Mr Tinubu
