US Court Dismisses Bid to Probe Tinubu, DCI Group Over Alleged Cyberattacks

A United States federal court has rejected an application by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan seeking limited discovery and evidence from President Bola Tinubu and lobbying firm DCI Group over alleged cyberattacks on his website.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia, in a ruling delivered on October 30, held that the proposed discovery was not sufficiently relevant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation pending before the bench.

The underlying suit involves statutory disclosure requests directed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Greenspan had petitioned the court to interrogate Tinubu and the DCI Group regarding purported digital disruptions to his portal, an excursion the court held fell outside the established legal framework governing FOIA proceedings.

In a series of interrelated orders, the court dismissed a motion filed by nonparty Karl Von Batten seeking leave to tender an amicus curiae brief.

The presiding judge also struck out Greenspan’s ancillary request for judicial notice alongside his substantive motion for summary judgment.

Reacting to the decision in Washington, attorney Christopher W. Carmichael stated that the court had enforced necessary statutory discipline by refusing to let collateral claims derail the litigation.

Carmichael maintained that FOIA proceedings cannot be converted into an open-ended mechanism to pursue discovery disconnected from the core administrative disclosures at issue.

Attorney Oluwole Afolabi observed that the rulings established crucial procedural boundaries by clarifying what subject matters properly belong before the court.

Afolabi explained that while substantive FOIA questions regarding federal agency records remain under revie