NY AG takes aim at TikTok’s secret stealth weapon

• Fourteen states filed separate lawsuits Tuesday, alleging that TikTok harms children’s mental health.
• NY AG Letitia James is leading the effort and has appointed Senior Counsel Kevin Wallace as lead litigator.
• Wallace attacked Trump twice in the NY James fraud case and also gave opening and closing statements.

Hot off the heels of a $454 million fraud verdict against former President Donald Trump, New York Attorney General Letitia James has now chosen her most prominent Trump lawyer to take on her next big target – TikTok .

On Tuesday, 14 states filed separate lawsuits against the popular Chinese-owned social media app, claiming it profits from harming children’s mental health.

James’ office has been laying the groundwork for this TikTok litigation on the coast of bi-costs for much of this year, networking with other attorneys general as they build a legal framework and a staff in Manhattan led by Kevin C. Wallace, a counsel senior AG enforcement veteran.

Wallace was something of a David to James Goliath’s targets, including her failed antitrust efforts against Facebook (pre-Meta) between 2020 and 2022.

Wallace was with James in 2022 when she announced that she was suing Trump for leaving his annual financial statements with billions of dollars in fraudulent overstatements of his worth.

Wallace twice went head-to-head with Trump himself. He questioned Trump’s prejudicial lawsuit in an April 2023 deposition, during which the former president insisted he was too busy “saving millions of lives” as president to commit business fraud.

At one point, Wallace complained to Trump: “We’re going to be here until midnight if your client answers every question with an eight-minute speech.”

Wallace continued to make opening statements and closing arguments when the case went to trial in Manhattan last year. And when Trump was called to the stand a month into the trial, it was Wallace who questioned him.

Tuesday’s lawsuits against TikTok allege separately but in similar language that the app’s calculatedly addictive qualities cause serious mental health and even physical harm to young users.

Nonstop notifications disrupt their sleep, the “autoplay” feature provides an endless stream of videos, and “beauty filters” encourage young girls to “fix” their appearances, James’ lawsuit alleges.

“Young people have died or been injured doing dangerous TikTok challenges, and many others feel sad, anxious and depressed because of TikTok’s addictive features,” James wrote in a press release.

An attorney representing TikTok in several teen addiction and personal injury lawsuits did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

The TikTok trial may be another of the years-long litigation marathons that James’ office has not shied away from since he first took office in 2019.

Her investigation into the National Rifle Association and its former executive director Wayne LaPierre began six years ago and led to a 2020 trial and a $5.4 million Manhattan jury verdict that is still in dispute post-process.

The Trump fraud investigation began in 2018 and is also not over yet. The $454 million judgment is under appeal, and a decision is expected any time in the coming weeks.

TikTok lawyers might be interested to know that Wallace, in particular, hasn’t shied away from litigation for years. In April, he signed a letter to Trump’s fraud judge warning that James’ office is still investigating whether the former president withheld evidence, a matter that, like the appeal, remains pending.