The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has submitted records relating to President Bola Tinubu’s 1993 drug-trafficking and money-laundering case directly to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., court documents have shown.
According to Peoples Gazette, the materials were delivered to Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia under seal, meaning they are currently accessible only to the court as it considers whether to make the records public.
The submission followed a prolonged legal battle over a Freedom of Information Act request filed by American transparency campaigner Aaron Greenspan, who has been seeking access to Tinubu’s records from the FBI.
Court filings indicated that the bureau delivered the documents on Friday, August 28, after Howell ordered it to explain its continued refusal to release the records.
The documents were submitted without notifying Greenspan of their contents.
According to the filing, the records were “hand delivered to the Court on August 28, 2026 in compliance with this Court’s Minute Order dated August 20, 2026.”
Greenspan had originally sought the records through a FOIA application submitted in 2023. He worked with Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin in pursuing the request.
The case later became a dispute over how quickly the FBI was processing the request, with the agency repeatedly asking for more time.
Howell reportedly gave the FBI several opportunities to explain why it was withholding the records but grew increasingly dissatisfied with the delays.
The judge eventually set August 28 as the deadline for the bureau to comply with her directive.
The bureau had argued earlier that releasing the records could infringe on Tinubu’s privacy rights.
It also maintained that the Freedom of Information Act was primarily intended to promote transparency concerning government operations and records, rather than provide unrestricted access to information about private individuals.
The controversy surrounding the records dates back several years and is linked to allegations concerning Tinubu’s activities in the United States in the early 1990s.
