Karl Von Batten says Nigeria presidential aides keep widening a fight they meant to shrink. In a 4 September post he answered Special Adviser Sunday Dare who shared a story saying Atikus lobbyist sits on an unpaid students honours panel and not in a White House policy job. Trump administration officials told that story the post does not make Von Batten a White House officer and gives him no policy power. Commissioners serve at the presidents pleasure take no United States pay and need no Senate vote.
Von Batten called the push another clumsy bid to stain his firm. He said it is an honor to be asked to serve paid or unpaid. He said he would serve for free for a thousand years if President Trump asked. He said the work is to honor top American students. He said that kind of loyalty to country is something President Bola Tinubu cannot grasp.
The honours row grew after the firm first announced a seat on the Commission on Presidential Scholars. Nigerian officials first said the appointment never happened. The White House later confirmed it. The firm said it took down its announcement after White House staff said Nigerian officials kept calling and complaining. Aides then switched to calling the role small and unpaid.
The clash sits on top of a larger Washington campaign. Atiku Abubakar hired Von Batten Montague York in March 2026 on a twelve month contract worth one point two million dollars to lift his name with American officials and counter Nigerian government talking points. The firm has pressed a District of Columbia records case filed by Aaron Greenspan after 2022 Freedom of Information Act requests for FBI and DEA files tied to Tinubu. Judge Beryl Howell is hearing Greenspan versus Executive Office for United States Attorneys. Tinubu joined as an intervenor. Other agencies left after Glomar answers. The FBI and DEA produced 399 pages with cuts.
Onanugas 3 September Statehouse statement said the suit is a civil records fight not a criminal case and that neither Atiku nor Von Batten is a party. It pointed to a 4 February 2003 letter from the American Consulate in Lagos to Inspector General Tafa Balogun saying an FBI National Crime Information Center check found no arrest records wants or warrants for then Governor Tinubu. The firm says the letter is full of spelling and grammar errors and that a no arrest check is not proof agents never opened a case. It argues that if Tinubu made a deal became an informant and stayed off the arrest books an embassy search would look clean while a drug file could still exist.
The firm says the FBI has told the court under oath that there was an official investigation of Tinubu and that the 399 pages given to the judge for private review were compiled in a drug trafficking probe. It also says an FBI paper asked the court not to release wire tap recordings in those files and that the taps were gathered while agents looked at several people for heroin crimes. The bureau cited Title Three wire tap law and FOIA Exemption 3. The firm notes the FBI wrote that privacy usually fades after death and says it believes Tinubu is the only targeted person from that old matter who is still alive.
The plaintiff must reply by 11 September 2026. The FBI DEA and Tinubu side must answer by 18 September 2026. The firm has asked to file a friend of the court brief saying the official Statehouse statement talking about the same files weakens Tinubus privacy claim under Exemption 7C. It notified Greenspan the Justice Department and Tinubus lawyers.
The firm has circulated 1993 civil forfeiture papers naming Tinubu Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele in a heroin proceeds case. It told the Justice Department about an unsolicited three million dollar offer and a private London meeting request that used disappearing messages. It later sent the FBI an information note naming Bayo Onanuga Sunday Dare and Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo over what it called a coordinated campaign against its advocacy. Keyamo called the row a storm in a teacup. The firm said a cabinet minister would not rush to answer a small American shop if the fight were empty.
The firm has also said Tinubu will not get a private meeting with President Trump at the United Nations gathering and that an APC linked person gave the EFCC fourteen days to arrest Atiku ahead of the 2027 vote.
