President Bola Tinubu has asked a United States (US) federal court to uphold the withholding or redaction of records sought by an American transparency activist investigating alleged US government inquiries involving him.
The request, contained in a 16-page court filing submitted by Tinubu’s legal team, centres on documents held by the US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The records are being pursued by American activist Aaron Greenspan through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against several US government agencies. His requests include the FBI’s complete file on Tinubu and FBI Form 302 interview records relating to the period between 1992 and 1993.
Greenspan is also seeking material connected with a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding in the US involving about $460,000 linked to Tinubu.
Tinubu has denied any wrongdoing.
His lawyers, Christopher W. Carmichael, Victor P. Henderson, and Oluwole O. Afolabi, told the court that releasing the requested material could violate the President’s privacy rights, even where fragments of related information may already have appeared in public records.
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“Regardless of the prior disclosure in the forfeiture proceeding, Intervenor retains a privacy interest in potential disclosure of the investigative files sought by Plaintiff,” the lawyers stated.
They cited previous US court decisions to support the position that an individual may retain privacy protections over investigative records even when some information from those documents has previously become public.
The legal team also maintained that Greenspan’s application was principally aimed at obtaining government documents containing Tinubu’s name.
“Plaintiff’s filings, overwhelmingly, demonstrate that his singular focus is obtaining documents with Intervenor’s ‘name on them’,” the lawyers wrote.
They contended that such a focus should not override protections under Exemption 7(C) of the FOIA, which covers certain records whose disclosure could constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, or the Privacy Act.
The lawyers further challenged the attempt to obtain details of any alleged government investigation, distinguishing between the public fact that a person may have been investigated and the confidential contents of investigative files.
The dispute is before the US District Court in Washington, where the case is identified as Case 1:23-cv-01816-BAH.
Tinubu’s legal team asked the court to reject Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment and permit the FBI and DEA to retain their existing redactions or withholdings.
The filing therefore does not establish the existence or outcome of any criminal investigation against Tinubu. Rather, it seeks to prevent the disclosure of records that Greenspan is attempting to obtain through the US FOIA process.
The court’s decision on the records will determine whether the requested documents, or portions of them, can be released to the public.
