Just when the public expected to finally see U.S. documents tied to an old drug investigation allegedly involving President Bola Tinubu, a last-minute delay has pushed the release date further into the future.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were due to release the records by Friday, May 2, 2025, following a court order issued in April by Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
But on Thursday, May 1, both agencies asked the court for a 90-day extension, saying they needed more time to complete their searches.
The records are being sought in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by American transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan in June 2023.
Greenspan is requesting access to documents tied to a 1990s drug trafficking and money laundering investigation in Chicago, which allegedly involved Tinubu and three other individuals: Mueez Akande, Lee Andrew Edwards, and Abiodun Agbele.
Greenspan had filed 12 FOIA requests between 2022 and 2023 directed at multiple U.S. government agencies, including the FBI, DEA, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), State Department, CIA, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in Indiana and Illinois. Of all the agencies, only the FBI and DEA remain involved in the lawsuit.
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In the joint filing to the court, the agencies stated:
“Aaron Greenspan (‘Plaintiff’) and Defendants Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the only remaining defendants in this case, respectfully submit the following joint status report proposing a schedule to govern further proceedings, pursuant to the Court’s Order of April 8, 2025.”
They confirmed they have started processing the FOIA requests and said, “The FBI and DEA have initiated their searches for responsive, non-exempt, reasonably segregable portions of records requested by the plaintiff and anticipate completing their searches in ninety days.”
But Greenspan is pushing back hard against the delay. “Given the years-long delay already caused by the defendants and the fact that many responsive documents have already been identified,” he said.
“The plaintiff proposes that the FBI and DEA complete their searches and productions by next week, or, at the very least, produce unredacted versions of the already-identified documents by next week, with the remainder completed in 14 days.”
He added, “The defendants provide no rationale for why their search for documents should take 90 days.”
As both sides await the court’s response to the proposed timelines, the saga continues. What remains uncertain is how much longer the public will have to wait to see the full contents of the FBI and DEA’s files.