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Bondi Letters Show Trump Shields Apple and Google From TikTok Ban

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Bondi Letters Show Trump Shields Apple and Google From TikTok Ban

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  • RT
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Newly released Justice Department letters show Attorney General Pam Bondi told Apple, Google and other technology companies they could continue providing services to TikTok without legal risk because President Donald Trump had determined that an abrupt shutdown of the app would interfere with his constitutional authority over foreign affairs.
In a Jan. 30, 2025 letter, Bondi wrote that the President’s foreign-policy powers outweighed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which Congress passed in 2024 to bar U.S. support for the Chinese-owned platform. A follow-up letter dated Apr. 5 extended that assurance and said the department was “irrevocably relinquishing” any civil or criminal claims tied to the ban during the covered period.
Congress approved the TikTok prohibition by large bipartisan margins, and the Supreme Court unanimously upheld it, but Trump suspended enforcement shortly after taking office in January 2025 and has since granted three extensions, the latest for 90 days. The letters surfaced through a Freedom of Information Act request and help explain why the app remains available in U.S. app stores despite the statutory ban.
Constitutional scholars say the documents mark one of the broadest assertions of presidential power in recent memory. Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith called the rationale “an astounding assertion of executive power,” while University of Minnesota’s Alan Rozenshtein warned that the position effectively allows the White House to nullify laws whenever they are deemed inconvenient to foreign-policy objectives.

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Jack Goldsmith
Jack GoldsmithTwitter verified badge
@jacklgoldsmith

My take on the Bondi letters related to not enforcing the TikTok ban--"an astounding assertion of executive power—maybe the broadest I have ever seen any president or Justice Department make, ever, in any context—and that is saying something."

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Lawfare
LawfareTwitter verified badge
@lawfare

Newly public letters from Attorney General Pam Bondi to major tech companies show the Justice Department advancing a radical theory of presidential power, nullifying Congress’s foreign affairs powers whenever the president finds them inconvenient, writes @ARozenshtein.

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Techmeme
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@Techmeme

FOIA docs: the Trump administration claimed broad authority to nullify laws in letters to tech firms releasing them of legal liability related to the TikTok ban (@charlie_savage / New York Times)

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Howard Bashman
Howard Bashman
@howappealing

Trump Claims Sweeping Power to Nullify Laws, Letters on TikTok Ban Show

AppleInsider
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@appleinsider

DOJ lack of TikTok ban enforcement appears to be due to broad Article II interpretation #Apple

#Justice Department#Pam Bondi#Apple#Google#TikTok#Donald Trump#Bondi#Congress#Chinese#Supreme Court#Trump#Freedom of Information Act#Harvard Law#Jack Goldsmith#University of Minnesota#Alan Rozenshtein#White House

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Story Timeline

  • •Latest version
    AG Pam Bondi Sends Letters to Google, Apple Backing Trump’s Power to Nullify Supreme Court-Upheld TikTok Ban
  • •Original version
    Bondi Letters Show Trump Shields Apple and Google From TikTok Ban

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