US Court Turns Down Request for FBI, CIA, IRS to Release Documents on Tinubu

The United States District Court of Columbia has declined a request to force the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA; Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI; and Internal Revenue Service, IRS to release information on President Bola Tinubu.

One Aaron Greenspan had filed the emergency motion seeking to compel the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the Department of State, FBI, IRS, the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA and the CIA to immediately release the documents following the Nigerian Supreme Court’s hearing of appeals from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party’s Peter Obi against Tinubu.

He pleaded for a quick release of the documents because they needed to be presented at the Supreme Court.

Greenspan told the court that the Supreme Court deliberately moved the hearing of the appeals by Atiku and Obi to October 23 to render his suit before the US court nugatory.

He had asked that the documents on Tinubu be released to him latest October 31.

Ruling on the appeal, Judge Beryl A. Howell declined Greenspan’s request on the grounds that he failed to satisfy the relevant conditions for the grant of such a prayer contained in a motion for an emergency hearing, which he filed on Monday.

In rejecting his motion for immediate release of the documents, the US court said Greenspan failed to convince the court of the public issues it could cause it to overlook the privacy rights of President Tinubu.

Meanwhile, Tinubu’s lawyers have filed a motion at the court seeking to be allowed to defend the President in the suit.