The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked a federal court to allow it to privately explain why some records linked to investigations involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should remain undisclosed.
Politics Nigeria reports that the request was filed on August 20, 2026, before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, as the legal battle over access to records concerning Tinubu enters another stage.
The FBI wants to submit a confidential declaration to the court. The declaration would be considered by the judge privately and would not be made available to the public.
The agency said the move is necessary because it cannot publicly disclose the full reasons behind its decision to withhold parts of the requested records.
The documents are being sought by Aaron Greenspan, an American transparency activist and founder of PlainSite.
His Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests cover records relating to Tinubu and an investigation dating back to the early 1990s.
The case has attracted renewed attention because of the allegations surrounding a historical investigation into drug trafficking and money laundering.
However, the existence of investigative records does not by itself establish that Tinubu committed a crime, and the President has not been convicted of drug trafficking in connection with the records being sought.
In its latest application, the FBI said it had relied on several exemptions under the US Freedom of Information Act to withhold information.
The agency specifically referred to Exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E) and 7(F).
The FBI said some of the withheld information could reveal law enforcement methods and could also expose individuals to potential danger.
Part of the FBI’s application reads: “One of the requests at issue is the request assigned Request Number 1588244-000, which sought “[t]he entire FBI file for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, DOB 3/29/1952, President-Elect of Nigeria as of February 2023.”
The agency said Greenspan later filed another request seeking interview records allegedly connected to an FBI investigation.
The application states: “Plaintiff submitted a second FOIA request to the FBI seeking “FBI 302 interviews with Bola Tinubu from FBI Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU during the timeframe 1992-1993.”
That request was assigned number 1593615-000.
According to the FBI, the records covered by the requests contain information that falls within protected categories under US law.
The agency said: “This was assigned Request Number 1593615-000. The FBI has invoked various Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Exemptions, including 6, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E) and 7(F) regarding these requests, and determined the information withheld from Plaintiff in this case, if disclosed, would, among other things, disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations and/or could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.”
The FBI further told the court that publicly explaining every reason for the withholding could itself compromise information that the exemptions are designed to protect.
It therefore asked for permission to make its fuller argument behind closed doors.
“The FBI has determined that it cannot provide on the public record the full basis for the application of Exemptions 7(E) and 7(F) to certain withholdings and that, therefore, an ex parte, under seal declaration is necessary,” the agency said.
An ex parte in camera filing means the judge can examine the material privately rather than requiring it to be filed openly on the court docket.
The FBI said that, if the request is approved, it would submit the confidential declaration before August 28.
The latest filing comes as Greenspan continues his attempt to obtain records from US agencies concerning Tinubu.
His requests have been part of a broader FOIA lawsuit against several US government agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The legal dispute dates back to 2023, when Greenspan began seeking records connected to Tinubu and other individuals allegedly linked to a Chicago-area drug investigation from the early 1990s.
A US federal court has since examined the agencies’ refusal to confirm or deny whether certain records existed.
In April 2025, US District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the FBI and DEA could no longer rely on their so-called “Glomar” responses in relation to the Tinubu records.
The ruling required the two agencies to search for and process non-exempt records responsive to Greenspan’s requests.
A Glomar response allows a US government agency to refuse to confirm or deny whether particular records exist when acknowledging their existence could itself cause harm protected under FOIA.
Judge Howell, however, found that the US Department of Justice had already publicly acknowledged Tinubu’s connection to the broader criminal investigation.
The court said that prior public disclosures affected the agencies’ ability to rely on a Glomar response simply to keep the existence of the investigation secret.
The judge also distinguished between confirming that an investigation existed and releasing the contents of investigative files.
The 2025 ruling did not mean that every document requested by Greenspan had to be released without redactions.
Rather, the FBI and DEA were directed to identify and process records that were not protected by applicable exemptions.
For now, the FBI is not asking the court to permanently end the case. It is asking for permission to explain privately why certain information should remain protected.
