A United States-based political advisory and lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, has accused the Nigerian Presidency of giving a misleading account of a US court ruling involving President Bola Tinubu and requests for historical FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records.
The firm made the allegation in a statement on its X handle while reacting to a post by presidential aide Sunday Dare, which reported that a US court had blocked Aaron Greenspan from seeking evidence directly from Tinubu in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
Von Batten-Montague-York acknowledged that the court rejected Greenspan’s request but said the decision was only one part of a broader ruling delivered on October 30, 2026.
According to the firm, the court also faulted the FBI and DEA for failing to provide sufficient justification for withholding substantial portions of records relating to a 1990s investigation into an alleged Chicago-based heroin trafficking and money laundering operation.
The firm said the judge questioned the agencies’ reliance on privacy and secrecy exemptions, particularly because some details of the investigation had already appeared in public court documents filed in 1993.
A review of the court’s ruling shows that Judge Beryl Howell agreed that the agencies had not adequately justified several of their redactions. She directed them to provide more detailed explanations, including distinguishing between information already in the public domain and previously undisclosed details.
The court also found that Tinubu’s privacy interests were reduced by his status as a public official during the period covered by the investigation, although it acknowledged that he retained privacy rights over information that had not been made public.
However, the judge denied Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment and rejected his request to obtain evidence from Tinubu and political consulting firm DCI Group over alleged cyberattacks on his website.
The court also rejected a separate application by Von Batten to submit an amicus curiae brief in support of Greenspan.
The case concerns Greenspan’s efforts to obtain historical investigative records from US federal agencies. The court’s findings relate to the disclosure of government records and do not establish that Tinubu committed any drug-related offence.
Von Batten-Montague-York described the ruling as a setback for the FBI, DEA, and the Nigerian Presidency, arguing that the official account focused on the rejected discovery request while overlooking the court’s criticism of the agencies’ handling of the records.
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