US Court Directs FBI, DEA to Submit Schedule for Release of Unredacted Files on Tinubu’s Heroin Trafficking Ties by July 31

A U.S. court filing has confirmed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) must submit a schedule by July 31, 2025, for the release of unredacted documents related to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s past involvement in heroin trafficking.

This follows a ruling by Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 8, which required the FBI and DEA to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from Aaron Greenspan and West Africa Weekly’s Editor-in-Chief David Hundeyin. The court ordered the agencies to search for and release non-exempt records related to Tinubu’s connection to heroin trafficking in Chicago.

In a joint status report filed on May 1, 2025, Greenspan challenged the agencies’ request for 90 additional days to provide the documents. He insisted that both agencies should release already-identified documents by next week and complete all outstanding production within two weeks.

Greenspan, founder of transparency platform PlainSite, also notified the court of his intent to recover $440.22 in legal expenses.

The FBI and DEA had stated that they have started searching for the requested records and asked the court for 90 days to complete the process. They also proposed submitting a joint status report by July 31. However, the plaintiffs rejected this and urged for a shorter deadline of May 31. Greenspan criticised the proposed timeline as unnecessary and stated that the FBI and DEA gave “no rationale whatsoever” for needing three months.

In an X post on May 2, Hundeyin clarifies that a compromise was reached.

“While they initially requested a further 90 days to identify and produce the unredacted files, we pushed back on that and demanded this to be done within 7 days. The final position agreed by both parties is that the FBI and DEA are to respond with a schedule for releasing the unredacted pages by July 31.”

The lawsuit, Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys et al., Civil Action No. 23-1816 (BAH), was filed in 2023 after six U.S. agencies, including the FBI, DEA, IRS, CIA, State Department, and Justice Department, initially refused to fully release Tinubu-related documents.

The agencies had invoked privacy exemptions, but Judge Howell dismissed the privacy argument and said it was neither logical nor plausible. She ordered the FBI and DEA to release all non-exempt, unredacted records. The CIA was excluded from this order.

From October 2023 to March 2024, the FBI released over 3,000 pages in five heavily redacted batches that did not mention Tinubu’s name. In a controversial court filing last November, the DEA argued that Tinubu’s privacy outweighed the Nigerian public’s right to scrutinise their president’s background. The court had given the agencies a deadline of May 2, 2025, to submit a release schedule.

While the agencies appear to be stalling, the plaintiffs, Aaron Greenspan and David Hundeyin, are keeping up the pressure in their joint push to uncover unredacted U.S. law enforcement records tied to Tinubu’s heroin trafficking past.

Hundeyin pointed out that “the really significant news here is that the response from the FBI and DEA has ruled out the possibility of an appeal. They are complying with the order and they will respond with a timetable for releasing the unredacted files by July 31”. This aligns with Greenspan’s remarks during a May 1 episode of PlainSite Office Hours, where he confirmed that the U.S. government would not appeal Judge Howell’s ruling.

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