A Washington firm hired by former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar says a new FBI paper filed in court admits that records tied to President Bola Tinubu include highly sensitive wire tap recordings. Von Batten Montague York posted the update on September 3 and said the bureau asked a judge not to release those tapes.
In the same filing the FBI wrote that the wire tap material was gathered while it investigated several people for heroin trafficking crimes. The firm says its plain reading is that Tinubu appears on tape in connection with that case.
The FBI cited Freedom of Information Act Exemption 3 and federal Title Three wire tap law under United States Code sections 2510 through 2520. Those rules protect the names of people targeted for secret listening and the information taken from the taps.
The firm argues that FOIA gives weaker privacy cover once a person is dead or has been convicted. It pointed to pages 19 and 20 of the FBI declaration where the bureau itself said privacy worries usually fade after someone dies. The firm said it is guessing but believes Tinubu is the only targeted person from that investigation who is still alive.
The same firm already told the Justice Department about an unsolicited three million dollar offer and a request for a private London meeting that used disappearing messages. It saved screenshots and said it reported the contacts to protect its reputation while it keeps working for Atiku before the White House and Congress. AAtiku signed the firm in March 2026 to a twelve month contract worth one point two million dollars. The work includes briefing American officials on 1993 civil forfeiture papers that grew out of a late 1980s and early 1990s heroin proceeds probe naming Tinubu and two other men.
The firm has also sent extra papers to the District of Columbia court in the long running records lawsuit and referred what it called a coordinated push by Nigerian officials against its advocacy to the FBI. Nigerian aides and Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo have called the campaign empty noise and a civil file fight not a live crime case.
The lobbyists want the judge to set aside the FBI secrecy claim and order the tapes out. They say if Tinubu is on those recordings tied to heroin trafficking then the American public the Trump administration Congress and Nigerians should hear what is on them.
