Cybersecurity Policy Report, Bessent Questioned About TikTok Deal’s Compliance With ‘Divest-or-Ban’ Law, (Mar 17, 2026)
Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) is questioning whether the recent sale of TikTok’s U.S. business to a group of investors complied with a federal law that sought to sever TikTok’s ties with the Chinese government.
He also wants Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to explain why TikTok’s new owners had to pay a $10 billion fee to the federal government.
In January, a group of investors that included Oracle Corp. and a venture capital firm owned by the United Arab Emirates acquired an 80.1% ownership stake in TikTok’s U.S. business (CPR, Jan. 23).
The acquisition was designed to comply with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024, the so-called divest-or-ban law, which required TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Ltd., to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets to buyers without ties to the Chinese government.
The Trump administration violated the law by issuing four extensions to the original deadline for the sale, Jan. 19, 2025, according to Sen. Warner.
In addition, he wrote in a letter today to Secretary Bessent, the terms of the deal are so opaque that it’s hard to tell whether it complies with the divest-or-ban law.
“Congress was addressing legitimate national security concerns when it passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in 2024, limiting the reach of TikTok in the United States,” Sen. Warner told Secretary Bessent.
“Under the law, the restriction on TikTok went into effect on January 19, 2025, and allowed for a single extension delaying the restriction if certain conditions were met. President Trump issued four illegal extensions in the year leading up to this acquisition,” he noted.
“The manner in which the administration handled this process raises a fear that the administration prioritized securing the well-connected investors' ownership of TikTok over national security,” he said.
He cited reporting in The Wall Street Journal that the purchasers of TikTok's U.S. business “will pay a $10 billon fee to the Treasury Department as a condition of approving the sale.”
“It is critically important to determine how the President could legally permit this sale, why the $10 billion fee is being paid by the buyers (who include at least one foreign, state-owned firm), who requested the fee and who approved it, and how the money will be used without violating applicable federal laws,” Sen. Warner said.
“The opaque, uncompetitive, and ad hoc process surrounding this government-brokered sale, with numerous clear conflicts of interest, has no analogue in modern American history,” he said.
He asked Mr. Bessent to respond by April 1 with details about the sale, including how it was deemed to be a “qualified divestiture” under the divest-or-ban law, what the $10 billion payment was for, and what the $10 billion would be used for.
News: FederalLegislation DataSecurity