Von Batten-Montague-York Releases FBI, DEA Court Filings on Tinubu Records, Says Transparency Answer To ‘Misleading Statements’ from Abuja
By OUR REPORTER
The organisation said it was making the documents public in response to what it described as “misleading statements” from the Nigerian Presidency regarding the FBI and DEA records.
Von Batten-Montague-York has begun releasing publicly available court filings submitted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the legal dispute over records concerning Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The organisation said it was making the documents public in response to what it described as “misleading statements” from the Nigerian Presidency regarding the FBI and DEA records.
In a statement, Von Batten-Montague-York said transparency was the “best response” to competing claims surrounding the records and urged the public to read the documents and draw their own conclusions.
It said the first batch comprises non-private FBI and DEA filings recently presented to the court, stressing that the documents are official government court records.
According to the organisation, the FBI and DEA had for years declined to confirm or deny the existence of criminal investigative records concerning Tinubu. It said this changed after a federal court ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice had already officially acknowledged that Tinubu was criminally investigated as part of an FBI and DEA investigation involving heroin trafficking and money laundering.
The organisation further claimed that the court subsequently directed the FBI and DEA to search for and process responsive, non-exempt records and that the agencies located a substantial volume of material referencing Tinubu.
However, Von Batten-Montague-York stressed that the documents being released do not constitute the entire body of records identified by the agencies.
It said a larger number of documents considered highly sensitive by the FBI and DEA had been submitted to the court ex parte, meaning they were provided privately for the judge’s review.
“Those records have been submitted ex parte, in other words, for private viewing by the Court,” the organisation said, adding that the publicly available filings nevertheless contain details about the agencies’ findings and the exemptions they are invoking to prevent some information from being disclosed.
Von Batten-Montague-York also highlighted an FBI statement contained in the filings concerning the nature of the investigation.
According to the organisation, the FBI said the responsive records submitted to the court for private review were “compiled in furtherance of its investigation of multiple individuals for drug-trafficking crimes.”
It argued that this description differs from Tinubu’s reported characterization of the matter as a civil forfeiture case.
The organisation said the filings refer to hundreds of responsive pages and outline exemptions that the FBI and DEA believe apply to portions of the records.
It urged Nigerians and other interested members of the public not to rely solely on statements from either the Nigerian government or the organisation itself, but to examine the U.S. court documents directly.
The controversy stems from an ongoing legal battle in the United States over the release of federal records relating to Tinubu and investigations conducted by U.S. law-enforcement agencies.
Von Batten-Montague-York said it would continue making publicly releasable records available, describing the initiative as an effort to promote transparency in a matter that has generated significant public interest.
The Firm provided a link to access the information . CLICK HERE to view and download the recent #FBI and #DEA court records
