The filing came less than two weeks after Trump met TikTok’s boss at Mar-a-Lago.
One of the president-elect’s major donors, Jeff Yass of Susequehanna International Group, is a big stakeholder in the company.
However, Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of state, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, is in favour of banning the platform.
Investors who have expressed interest in buying the TikTok include Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
Attorney Peter Choharis, who is part of a group that filed its own brief supporting the US government’s case, said it was hard to predict what the court – which has a conservative majority – would do, noting that several recent court decisions have overturned longstanding precedent.
But he said even if Trump was granted the opportunity to try to work out a deal, he expected a ban eventually.
“I don’t see any president, including future President Trump, being able to resolve this in a way that’s satisfactory for US national security because I don’t think ByteDance will agree to it,” he said.
