United States District Judge Beryl Howell has granted the U.S. Department of Justice four additional days to comply with an order concerning records relating to a past investigation involving Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The development was disclosed by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington, D.C.-based policy advisory and lobbying firm, in a post on X.
According to the firm, Howell noted that the case had been pending for more than three years.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, had reportedly requested an additional 10 days to comply with the order concerning records held by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
However, the judge granted only four additional days, setting August 21, 2026, as the new deadline for compliance.
The records are connected to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation brought by American transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan, who sought documents relating to a U.S. investigation from the 1990s involving Tinubu. In April 2025, Judge Howell ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and process non-exempt records responsive to the requests.
The latest development has renewed calls for the records to be made public.
Von Batten-Montague-York said the DOJ’s renewed efforts to comply with the court order were welcome, while insisting that the documents should now be released.
“We deeply appreciate US Attorney Pirro and the DOJ’s renewed motivation to release these documents, and we agree with Judge Howell. This case has been pending for three years. The time to release the Tinubu drug-trafficking files is now,” the firm said.
The lobbying firm also argued that the United States’ strategic relationship with Nigeria should not prevent the release of records that are subject to the court proceedings.
The Tinubu-related records have been the subject of legal proceedings for several years. In her 2025 ruling, Judge Howell rejected the FBI and DEA’s previous refusal to confirm or deny whether responsive records existed, finding that the agencies had officially acknowledged investigations involving Tinubu and that the public interest supported further disclosure.
The Presidency has previously maintained that the records contain no new or incriminating information, arguing that reports relating to the investigation have been in the public domain for decades.
With the latest extension, the DOJ is expected to take further action on the records by August 21, 2026.
