RismadarVoice Reporters
October 31, 2026
A United States federal court has rejected a request seeking to obtain evidence from Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Washington-based consulting firm DCI Group in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia delivered the ruling on Friday, October 30, 2026, dismissing an application filed by Aaron Greenspan concerning alleged cyberattacks on his website.
Presiding Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that the proposed discovery was not sufficiently relevant to the underlying dispute involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The lawsuit concerns Greenspan’s efforts to obtain records relating to federal investigations into alleged money laundering and drug trafficking activities in the United States during the early 1990s.
Greenspan had sought permission to question Tinubu and obtain documents from DCI Group concerning suspected distributed denial-of-service attacks that allegedly disrupted access to his website.
However, the court determined that investigating the source of those attacks would not assist in resolving whether the FBI and DEA had properly searched for and processed records requested under FOIA.
The judge consequently denied the discovery application, alongside Greenspan’s related request for judicial notice.
The court also rejected a separate application by Karl Von Batten, who was not a party to the lawsuit, seeking permission to submit an amicus curiae brief.
Additionally, the judge denied Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment.
However, the ruling did not entirely favour the federal agencies.
The court granted the FBI partial summary judgment concerning the adequacy of its records search and certain information withheld under FOIA Exemption 5.
It rejected other aspects of the government’s application, directing the agencies to provide further explanations if they intended to continue withholding disputed records.
Reacting to the decision, attorney Christopher W. Carmichael maintained that the ruling reinforced the requirement that discovery requests remain connected to the issues before the court.
Another attorney, Oluwole Afolabi, described the decision as establishing procedural boundaries for the continuing litigation.
The judgment does not establish responsibility for the alleged cyberattacks, nor does it constitute a determination of criminal wrongdoing by Tinubu.
The substantive dispute concerning the disclosure of certain FBI and DEA records remains unresolved, with further proceedings expected.
