A recent Freedom of Information Act request has shed light on previously undisclosed correspondence between the US Department of Justice and major tech giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon. These newly released documents reveal efforts by the DOJ to reassure companies about potential legal risks related to a law aimed at banning US web services from working with TikTok.
The documents, obtained by Google shareholder Zhaocheng Anthony Tan—who filed a lawsuit demanding their release—highlight communications from Attorney General Pam Bondi and her predecessor, Acting Attorney General James McHenry III. In these letters, officials promised to shield companies from liability under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. This law was designed to prohibit US companies from hosting TikTok in app stores and on other platforms, with the threat of hefty fines running into hundreds of billions of dollars. The goal was to pressure ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, into selling the app due to national security concerns.
Interestingly, the letters also included assurances that the Justice Department would intervene to prevent enforcement actions by other entities. This commitment involved filing amicus briefs or even intervening in lawsuits to block penalties. The first of these letters was reportedly sent on January 30th—just ten days after then-President Trump signed an executive order delaying the law’s enforcement, which went into effect just before his inauguration. Following this, additional letters, including one dated April 5th—shortly after Trump extended the enforcement delay to mid-June—reinforced these promises.
While the existence of these communications was known, their full content had not been publicly available until now. The recipients of these letters ranged from app store operators to cloud hosting providers, indicating a broad effort to coordinate the legal landscape around TikTok’s status.
As of now, President Trump has issued a third extension, which will last until mid-September, while negotiations and discussions about selling TikTok to a non-Chinese owner continue. It remains unclear whether these DOJ directives have any solid legal foundation, raising questions about their enforceability and the true intentions behind them.
