Saturday, August 22, 2026 -A US Court has taken a new step in the long-running Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, case seeking the release of alleged drug-trafficking records linked to President Bola Tinubu.
In an update posted on X, a Washington-based lobbying firm,
Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. said it had been informed that Judge Beryl
Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, August
21 granted the FBI permission to submit the documents to the court privately,
for in-camera review.
The firm said the judge has given the FBI, the Drug
Enforcement Administration, DEA, the Department of Justice, DOJ, and President
Tinubu until August 28, 2026, and no later, to file their opposition to the
release of the records.
The firm described the ‘and no later’ language as a sign that
the court has reached its limit.
The firm added that the FBI would now have to convince the
court why the documents should not be released, including through its private
submission of the sensitive material for judicial review.
According to the firm, the FBI had acknowledged possessing
highly sensitive information related to allegations of drug trafficking
involving Tinubu.
It argued that the FBI’s request for the court to review the
documents privately indicated that the material contained information the
agency considered particularly sensitive.
The firm also alleged that the records could involve
information concerning criminal informants and claimed that the development
contradicted previous characterizations of the matter as being solely related
to civil forfeiture.
“We have now been informed that US
Court’s Judge Howell this morning granted the FBI permission to provide the
court with the documents in private.
“This has
not yet been published on the court docket as of this evening, and the claim is
based solely on the law firm’s X post,” the post read.
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