Last week Dr Karl Von Batten got a call telling him President Donald Trump had named him to the Commission on Presidential Scholars. His staff got excited and thanked the president in public on X. He later called that a big mistake.
The Nigerian government was already angry over his firm work that points to allegations that President Bola Tinubu was part of a group that smuggled heroin from Nigeria into the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Officials seized on the thank you post and flooded the White House with calls. They framed the appointment as a proxy war against Nigeria.
Von Batten says he loves President Trump so he apologized to the White House right away and took the announcement down. He says he learned that day that the Nigerian government will do everything it can to stop his work exposing its president alleged drug trafficking past. He sent a direct message to Tinubu. His resolve stays the same and Tinubu will be held accountable for an alleged role in pushing poison heroin into the United States.
Von Batten chairs development work for the DC Republican Party and runs Von Batten Montague York.
The commission he joined is an unpaid group of private citizens named by the president. Members help pick up to 161 top American high school seniors each year for school work arts job skills and service. The program started in 1964. It does not run foreign policy or drug cases. Tinubu aides later said it is only an education honor not a White House power job. The public thank you post was later removed.
His firm has given American officials more than 60 pages from a 1993 civil case in Chicago. From the late 1980s into the early 1990s FBI DEA and IRS agents looked at a group that moved white heroin from Nigeria into the Midwest. The government said the money landed in bank accounts opened and controlled by Tinubu who was then an accountant for Mobil Oil in Chicago. Also named were Adegboyega Mueez Akande called the group leader and a longtime contact and Abiodun Agbele who later helped after selling heroin to an undercover officer.
Tinubu opened several accounts after Akande introduced him at a bank. Large deposits followed even though his listed pay was small. Agents said shared addresses and family ties linked the money to the drug work. In 1993 the government sued to take the funds. The case ended in a civil deal. About 460 thousand dollars was forfeited. The rest was released. Tinubu was never charged with a crime and never convicted. He has always denied any role in trafficking. Nigerian courts later treated it as a finished money case not a crime that blocked him from office.
The story has circled Nigerian politics for years. It rose again in 2023 and now before 2027. An American requester named Aaron Greenspan is suing under open records law for the full FBI file and interview notes. A judge has already said the government admitted there was an investigation of Tinubu and ordered agencies to search for records they can release. The FBI has said some files include wiretap material and wants those parts kept secret to protect sources. The firm claims the FBI has Tinubu on tape tied to the old case. That claim has not been proven in open court.
The firm has briefed members of Congress and Trump staff. It also said a person described as close to Tinubu offered 3 million dollars and a private London meeting to drop the campaign. The firm says it refused saved the messages and sent them to the Justice Department. The Nigerian presidency calls the drive a paid political attack by Atiku camp and says the old files were closed more than 30 years ago.
Von Batten says Tinubu government is ready to do all it can to halt the records work. He says his resolve has not changed. Supporters in Nigeria praised him for standing firm. Tinubu’s supporters say a paid lobbyist for a rival is turning a settled civil money fight into a crime story to hurt the sitting president.
The student honors panel still exists to praise American teenagers. The old Chicago files still sit in court and agency archives. They collided this week because a staff thank you went up too fast and another government picked up the phone. The records fight continues. So does the warning that Tinubu will be held accountable for pushing poison heroin into America.
