FBI Cites Safety Concerns as It Moves to Block Release of Tinubu Records
Washington DC—The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked a D.C. court for permission to hand over confidential files privately to a judge.
These sensitive documents contain the FBI’s specific reasons for withholding records related to Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The agency argued that making the information public could expose law enforcement methods and put people’s lives or physical safety in danger.
In a four-page motion filed on August 20, 2026, government lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell to review the secret justifications privately.
The disputed files include FBI interview records from a 1992–1993 case involving Tinubu. If the judge approves the request, the FBI plans to submit two confidential declarations by August 28, 2026, though the plaintiff in the case, Aaron Greenspan, strongly opposes the secrecy.
This legal battle forms part of a three-year-old Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking U.S. government records on the Nigerian president.
Earlier, Tinubu’s legal team joined the U.S. Department of Justice in asking for a 10-day extension to respond to a summary judgment motion in the case. However, Judge Howell denied that specific request and granted a much shorter extension instead.
Public interest in the files stems from a 1990s U.S. investigation into a Chicago heroin trafficking ring after an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Consequently, a U.S. court froze over $1.4 million in 1992 and ordered the forfeiture of $460,000 from an account linked to Tinubu.
The issue was raised in a petition seeking to nullify Tinubu’s 2023 election win but was thrown out by the Court of Appeal, which upheld arguments by Tinubu’s lawyers that the said case was a civil proceeding. That decision was also upheld by Nigeria’s apex court.
Prior to the 2023 presidential elections, Tinubu’s lawyers and media representatives have also repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and links of the former Lagos state governor to drug trafficking, demanding proof by those claiming he was arrested and convicted of the said allegations
