{"id":129063,"date":"2026-08-19T07:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=129063"},"modified":"2026-08-19T07:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:13:17","slug":"us-court-orders-release-of-records-in-alleged-tinubu-drug-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/us-court-orders-release-of-records-in-alleged-tinubu-drug-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"US court orders release of records in alleged Tinubu drug investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Azu<\/strong><\/p>\n

A United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the release of records relating to alleged drug-trafficking investigations involving President Bola Tinubu and his former associate, Abiodun Agbele.<\/p>\n

The order, issued by Judge Beryl Howell, directed relevant US government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to comply with the disclosure request.<\/p>\n

The development was disclosed in a post on X by Von Batten-Montague-York, a US policy advisory and lobbying firm.<\/p>\n

The case centres on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by American activist and researcher Aaron Greenspan, who sought records concerning Tinubu and Agbele.<\/p>\n

The latest development follows the involvement of Jeanine Pirro, a newly appointed US attorney under President Donald Trump, in the case.<\/p>\n

Pirro had reportedly sought an additional 10 days to comply with the court’s directive. However, Howell granted only four days, noting that the case had been pending for more than three years.<\/p>\n

The order is the latest development in a legal battle over the release of records allegedly held by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies concerning Tinubu and Agbele.<\/p>\n

In a ruling in July 2025, Howell rejected attempts by the FBI and DEA to withhold the existence of certain records by invoking what is known as a \u201cGlomar response\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Glomar response allows a US government agency to refuse to confirm or deny whether it possesses records relating to a person or matter when doing so could itself cause harm protected under a FOIA exemption.<\/p>\n

Howell, however, held that the agencies’ reliance on the Glomar response was no longer sustainable in the circumstances of the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it was acknowledged that Tinubu was a subject of an investigation involving both the FBI and DEA, the claim that the Glomar responses were necessary to protect this information from public disclosure is at this point neither logical nor plausible,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

The judge explained that a FOIA requester could challenge an agency’s Glomar response in two principal ways.<\/p>\n

The first is by challenging the agency’s claim that confirming or denying the existence of records would result in a legally recognisable harm under a FOIA exemption.<\/p>\n

The second is by demonstrating that the agency had previously \u201cofficially acknowledged\u201d otherwise exempt information, thereby waiving its right to rely on the exemption in respect of that information.<\/p>\n

In Greenspan’s case, Howell said he had advanced both arguments.<\/p>\n

According to the ruling, Greenspan argued, among other things, that the DEA had officially confirmed an investigation into Agbele’s alleged involvement in a drug-trafficking operation, while the FBI and DEA had also acknowledged investigations relating to Tinubu.<\/p>\n

He further argued that any privacy interests associated with the requested records were outweighed by the public interest in their disclosure and that the CIA had acknowledged possessing records responsive to his request concerning Tinubu.<\/p>\n

The case dates back to allegations surrounding a 1993 forfeiture of $460,000 by Tinubu to the US authorities.<\/p>\n

The money was reportedly seized by US authorities and forfeited in connection with an investigation into suspected narcotics proceeds.<\/p>\n

Tinubu has consistently denied wrongdoing and has not been convicted of any drug-related offence in the United States.<\/p>\n

The Presidency, in response to previous reports concerning the records, said the allegations were not new and did not establish criminal wrongdoing by the President.<\/p>\n

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, had previously said the information contained in the FBI and DEA records had been in the public domain for decades.<\/p>\n

He also maintained that the documents did not indict Tinubu.<\/p>\n

The issue resurfaced prominently during the 2023 presidential election litigation after the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party, Peter Obi, raised questions concerning Tinubu’s past in the United States.<\/p>\n

The allegations were considered during the legal challenges to Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 presidential election. The Presidential Election Petition Court, however, rejected the challenges and upheld Tinubu’s election.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court subsequently affirmed the judgment of the tribunal, dismissing the appeals against Tinubu’s victory.<\/p>\n

The latest US court order does not itself establish that Tinubu committed a drug-related offence. Rather, it concerns the disclosure of government records sought under the FOIA.<\/p>\n

The nature and contents of any records eventually released by the US authorities will therefore determine whether they contain new information beyond material that has previously entered the public domain.<\/p>\n

The records are expected to shed further light on the investigations and the basis for the agencies’ earlier refusal to confirm or deny the existence of certain documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Azu A United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the release of records relating to alleged drug-trafficking investigations involving President Bola Tinubu and his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\nUS court orders release of records in alleged Tinubu drug investigation - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/us-court-orders-release-of-records-in-alleged-tinubu-drug-investigation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US court orders release of records in alleged Tinubu drug investigation - 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