WeChat Users Request for Evidence Behind Trump’s Order Is Denied

(Bloomberg) -- WeChat users seeking to block President Donald Trump’s executive order that would ban the use of the Chinese-owned messaging app in the U.S. won’t be able to see the evidence supporting the order yet.

A U.S. magistrate judge in San Francisco on Thursday denied the request by the U.S. WeChat Users Alliance for expedited peek at the rationale behind Trump’s Aug. 6 order. The users sought the evidence to bolster their argument to halt the president’s order before it is set to go into effect on Sept. 20.

The question of whether there’s a need for a preliminary injunction against Trump’s order can be decided on the public information that the government has provided, the magistrate judge said. The user group’s request will be heard on Sept. 17.

Trump’s order prohibits unspecified transactions with WeChat and its Chinese parent company Tencent Holdings Ltd. as well as with social media app TikTok and its owner ByteDance Ltd., purportedly because of national security concerns. The Commerce Department is to specify by Sept. 20 which specific transactions are off limits for Americans.

The case is U.S. WeChat Users Alliance v. Trump, 20-cv-05910, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

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