The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee warned Monday that President Trump’s additional extension for TikTok’s parent company to divest from the app, as well as a potential divestment deal on the table, may violate the law.
In a letter to Trump, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he has “deep reservations with how you and other involved parties are carrying out the negotiations around the sale of TikTok.”
He emphasized that the law passed by Congress last April, which required TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest from the app or face a U.S. ban, allowed a single 90-day extension.
“This second delay is a clear violation of the law, while also continuing to leave Americans vulnerable to malign influence operations conducted by an adversary country,” Warner wrote.
Trump signed an executive order Friday halting enforcement of the law for another 75 days, saying his administration had made “tremendous progress” toward a deal but that it “requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed.”
He initially gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the divest-or-ban law shortly after taking office with aspirations of reaching a deal to keep TikTok available in the U.S.
A source familiar with the negotiations told The Hill that a deal was finalized last week that would have seen TikTok’s U.S. operations spun off into a new company owned and operated by a majority of American investors. ByteDance would maintain a minority stake in the company under the agreement.
However, ByteDance representatives told the White House on Thursday that China would no longer approve a deal without further negotiations on tariffs, after Trump announced new “reciprocal” tariffs against Beijing.
Trump seemingly confirmed this account Sunday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the reports about the deal were “largely correct.”
“The report is that we had a deal, pretty much for TikTok, not a deal, but pretty close, and then China changed the deal because of tariffs,” he said. “If I gave a little cut in tariffs, they’d approve that deal in 15 minutes, which shows you the power of tariffs, right?”
Warner on Monday voiced concerns that the potential deal would not meet the “clear statutory thresholds for eliminating ByteDance’s influence over TikTok’s U.S. operations,” arguing it would “preserve a material, operational role for ByteDance.”
He pointed both to ByteDance’s continued stake in the new company, as well as the possibility TikTok’s China-based parent firm could maintain control over the app’s underlying technology.
Several media outlets have reported that the White House was considering leasing TikTok’s recommendation algorithm from ByteDance.
“The deal being discussed undermines confidence that the divested app can be trusted to protect national security and ensure compliance with the law,” Warner said.
He also suggested that the Trump administration does not appear to be following the “substantive, risk-based inter-agency process contemplated in the law,” pointing to reports indicating an “ad hoc process, driven by White House personnel.”
“I strongly encourage you actually adhere to the law Congress passed and immediately convene an inter-agency team to evaluate any prospective divestiture based on genuine, risk-based criteria,” Warner wrote.
“Any qualified divestiture must ensure a clean operational break from ByteDance and TikTok USA,” he added.
