Tinubu Challenges U.S. Release of 1990s Drug Records in FOIA Case

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Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally intervened in a U.S. federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, urging a Washington, D.C., court to block the release of decades-old FBI, DEA, and Justice Department records that a plaintiff seeks about him.

In a response filed in Aaron Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys et al. (Civil Action No. 23-1816), Tinubu’s lawyers argue that the Freedom of Information Act is not a vehicle for obtaining government files on private individuals and that his privacy interests under FOIA Exemption 7(C) and the Privacy Act outweigh any asserted public interest.

Plaintiff Aaron Greenspan, who operates the website plainsite.org, has sought records including Tinubu’s FBI file and materials tied to a 1993 civil forfeiture of approximately $460,000 connected to a Chicago heroin investigation. The government has already produced thousands of pages, some redacted, along with a Vaughn index. Greenspan moved for summary judgment, contending that redactions should be lifted.

Tinubu’s filing states that the requests target information about a private citizen accumulated in law-enforcement files and “reveal little or nothing about an agency’s own conduct.” It emphasizes that Tinubu was not a public official in 1993 and that subsequent involvement in Nigerian politics does not erase privacy interests in pre-public-figure records. Lawyers cite Supreme Court precedent, including U.S. Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, holding that FOIA’s purpose is to open government activities to scrutiny, not to disclose information about private citizens that happens to reside in government files.

The response further contends there is no FOIA-recognized public interest in an individual’s criminal history or in influencing politics in a foreign nation. It rejects arguments that limited prior disclosures in the 1993 forfeiture proceeding or the “public domain” doctrine eliminate privacy protections for the remaining contents of investigative files. The filing also maintains that the Privacy Act provides an independent basis for withholding and that unsubstantiated claims of government cover-ups do not justify disclosure.

Tinubu’s attorneys ask the court to deny Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment and allow the FBI’s and DEA’s redactions and withholdings to stand. The case has been pending since 2023; no final ruling on the merits of the remaining requests has been issued.

The filing does not concede the existence or substance of any criminal findings against Tinubu. It treats the sought records as potentially containing personal information protected from disclosure and focuses on legal privacy protections rather than the underlying allegations.