The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a federal watchdog group, has penned an open letter to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and the Archivist of the United States, urging them to “take action” and investigate the DOJ’s removal of its Jan. 6 database — detailing criminal charges and convictions related to the 2021 Capitol attack — which they call a “likely violation” of federal law.

“The Department of Justice’s removal of this vital information about its prosecutions arising from the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is consistent with President Trump’s ongoing efforts to rewrite or erase the insurrection,” the CREW letter reads. “We request that you promptly investigate this matter and take appropriate corrective action if necessary.”

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U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court will decide whether TikTok ban violates the First Amendment

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 18, 2024, 2:17 pm CST

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the constitutionality of a law that bans TikTok in the United States if the company isn’t sold.

Oral arguments in the First Amendment challenge are scheduled for Jan. 10 in two consolidated cases seeking emergency applications for an injunction. One was filed by TikTok and ByteDance, its owner. The other was filed by TikTok users.

The TikTok ban is “a massive and unprecedented speech restriction,” the company argued in its Supreme Court request.

SCOTUSblog, Law360, the Washington Post and the New York Times are among the publications with coverage.

TikTok must be sold or face a U.S. ban under the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The law bans apps controlled by China and three countries identified as foreign adversaries of the United States, SCOTUSblog explains. The deadline for compliance is Jan. 19.

Lawmakers who supported the law said TikTok is a security threat because the Chinese government has oversight of private companies, the New York Times explains.

In an amicus brief, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said TikTok is a threat because it is “under the direct control of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The goal of the law, the brief said, “is to further the highly compelling state interest of preventing Chinese Communist mining of American data and deployment of subversive enemy propaganda through algorithmic curation.”

TikTok users’ injunction application notes that Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on TikTok during the 2024 presidential election, “thereby implicitly encouraging Americans to use the app.”

Trump said at a news conference on Monday he has a “warm spot in my heart for TikTok.”

The Supreme Court granted review after treating the emergency injunction applications as cert petitions, as suggested by the briefs.