Nigeria News Nalin The FBI and the DEA told U.S. District Court Thursday that they would need an additional 90 days to file an investigation report related to the alleged drug case involving President Bola Tinubu, which dates back to the 1990s, the report said.
In a joint identity report filed with the District Court of the District of Columbia, two federal agencies, together with plaintiff Aaron Greenspan, requested an extension of the timetable.
The case involved Tinubu’s alleged involvement in the Chicago Drug Ring in the early 1990s.
But Greenspan, an advocate of American legal transparency and founder of the platform, rejected a 90-day extension, instead proposed a 14-day deadline for the FBI and the DEA to set relevant records.
The District Court, chaired by Judge Beryl Howell, had previously ordered the agencies to search and process records related to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filed by Greenspan. The initial deadline for the agency to submit its report is May 2, 2025.
Greenspan filed 12 FOIA requests between 2022 and 2023 seeking information about the Chicago drug ring, which allegedly included four people, including Tinubu.
The requests also sought documents about other people related to the case: Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande and Abiodun Agbele.
Previously, both the FBI and the DEA issued a “Glomar Reply” refusing to confirm or deny the existence of the requested record. However, the court ruled that such a response was inappropriate in this case.
In a joint identity report filed on May 1, 2025, the FBI and the DEA informed the court that they had begun looking for non-exempt portions of the requested records. They expect to complete the search within the next 90 days.
Nevertheless, Greenspan believes that the agencies should produce unedited versions of the document so that it has been determined next week.
He also stressed that the remaining records should be provided within 14 days, accusing the agency of failing to provide valid reasons for why a document search that takes up to 90 days.
He signed Greenspan’s 14-day extension proposal, two lawyers representing defendants Edwards Martin Jr. and Jared Litman.
The report reads, “Aaron Greenspan (“Plaintiff”) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) (DEA), in this case, the only remaining defendants have respectfully submitted the following joint identity report, proposing a timetable for further litigation under a court order of April 8, 2025 (ECF No. 47).
“According to the order of the court, the defendants FBI and DEA must search and generate non-exempt records of responses to the plaintiff’s FOIA request (FBI request numbers 1588244-000 and 1593615-000, and the DEA request numbers 22-00892-F and 24-00201-F).
“The FBI and DEA initiated their search to seek the response of plaintiffs’ requests for quick, non-waived, reasonably separable record sections and are expected to complete the search within ninety days.
“Given the years-long delays that the defendants have caused and many response documents have been identified, the plaintiffs have proposed that the FBI and the DEA have completed their searches and works by next week, or at least the unrepaired documents that have been identified by the next week, with no searches for the remaining 14 days.
“The plaintiff intends to request reimbursement of its fees: the application fee for applying for mailing is $402.00 and $38.22, totaling $440.22.
“The defendant proposes that the parties submit a joint identity report by or before July 31, 2025 to update the court’s status of the case after the agency seeks responsive, non-immune, reasonably quarantinable records. The records required by the plaintiff. The plaintiff recommends that they submit a joint identity report by or before May 31, 2025.”
