US sets August 21 deadline to release Tinubu narcotics records, says Trump won’t shield alleged drug trafficker

• US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has until August 21 to comply with the court’s directive on the records.

• Pirro had requested 10 additional days, but Judge Beryl Howell granted only four.

• Dr Von Batten-Montague-York welcomed the DOJ’s renewed push to release the documents.

• The firm said US strategic interests with Nigeria should not mean supporting an “alleged drug trafficker.”

A US firm has welcomed an August 21, 2026 deadline for the release of records relating to a narcotics investigation involving President Bola Tinubu, saying the Trump administration should not support an alleged drug trafficker.

The development followed an order by US District Judge Beryl Howell giving US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, four additional days to comply with an earlier directive concerning the release of the records.

According to THISDAY, Pirro had requested an additional 10 days, but Howell granted only four, setting August 21 as the new deadline.

Reacting to the development, Dr Von Batten-Montague-York welcomed the court's decision and expressed support for the renewed effort by the US Department of Justice to release the records.

“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,” he wrote.

According to him, the US's strategic interests with Nigeria should not prevent the release of the records.

“As President Trump has indicated, our shared interests with Nigeria do not mean supporting an alleged drug trafficker,” he added.

The records are held by US government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The case concerns efforts to obtain records relating to a historical US investigation involving Tinubu and has been before the court for more than three years.

The records sought are connected to a US investigation dating back to the early 1990s involving allegations of narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

Tinubu has previously been linked to a US civil forfeiture proceeding involving about $460,000 seized by American authorities. The funds were forfeited in connection with an investigation into narcotics trafficking.

However, Tinubu was not criminally charged or convicted of drug trafficking in the United States in relation to the case.

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The current legal dispute centres on requests for the release of government records under the US Freedom of Information Act.

In an earlier ruling, Howell ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and process records responsive to the requests, subject to applicable legal exemptions.

The August 21 deadline marks the latest development in the long-running effort to obtain the records.