HELENA—Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has joined two multistate coalitions pressing federal officials on separate national-security and terrorism-related issues, including scrutiny of TP-Link’s ties to China and access to frozen Taliban funds for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
In one effort, Knudsen joined 20 other state attorneys general in asking the Federal Communications Commission to closely review TP-Link Systems Inc. as the company seeks conditional approval to sell new router models in the United States.
The coalition argues that TP-Link’s origins in China, continued operations there and the security history of some of its routers warrant additional scrutiny.
TP-Link was founded in Shenzhen in 1996 and is now headquartered in California. The company says it separated from China-based TP-Link Technologies in 2024, but Knudsen and the other attorneys general pointed to the company’s continued workforce, research, development and manufacturing presence in China.
The coalition also raised concerns about vulnerabilities identified in TP-Link routers that have been exploited by foreign hackers, including Chinese state-linked groups and Russia’s military intelligence service.
Knudsen has separately filed a lawsuit against TP-Link under the Montana Consumer Protection Act, alleging the company made misleading claims about the security and privacy of its products. TP-Link controls a significant share of the U.S. retail market for Wi-Fi systems and small-office and home-office routers.
The attorneys general are asking the FCC to consider those concerns as it reviews TP-Link’s request for approval of additional products.
In a separate filing, Knudsen joined a coalition of 31 state attorneys general asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case involving $3.5 billion in frozen Taliban-linked funds sought by victims and families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The coalition is challenging a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that prevented the plaintiffs from accessing the frozen assets despite previously obtaining judgments against the Taliban.
The money was frozen at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in August 2021 as Taliban forces took control of Afghanistan.
The lower court concluded that the timing of the asset freeze prevented the funds from being used to satisfy the victims’ judgments. The attorneys general argue that the ruling conflicts with federal terrorism law, which they say allows blocked assets of terrorist parties to be used to satisfy judgments obtained by victims of terrorism.
The coalition is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the appellate ruling and allow the case to proceed under that interpretation.
Both efforts place Montana alongside groups of states seeking a larger federal role in addressing national-security concerns involving foreign governments, technology infrastructure and terrorism-related assets.