SEC Ready To Surrender Hinman Speech Docs? Here Are Its New Claims

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed its Reply in order to support its objections to the Court orders related to the Hinman Speech. However, the commission asserted that the defendants misrepresented their prior filings.

SEC claims that Hinman’s speech has no relevance

As per the filing, the SEC still claims that Hinman’s speech draft holds no relevance to the assertions of the defendants. It mentions that they are non-public documents that the opposition has never seen.

However, it added that even if the speech drafts stand relevant then DPP and attorney-client privilege shields them. Thus the documents should not be produced. Coingape reported that the Ripple and defendants are pushing the SEC to disclose the infamous speech documents.

The SEC highlighted that the Defendants incorrectly argued that the commission concedes that Judge Netburn got the law right.

The filing highlights that just because the speech reflected Hinman’s personal views, the draft cannot come under privilege. This is premised on legal and factual errors. SEC suggests that this is based on two false dichotomies pursued by the defendants.

Meanwhile, the commission presents that they have already explained its assertions in the case. SEC mentioned the communication within the agency can only reflect either personal or agency. Further DPP and other privileges protect only deliberations about limited decisions.

Is watchdog still wasting court’s time?

The SEC insists that Ripple and the defendants haven’t made any attempt to work on these errors of law. They are trying to twist the record by claiming that the agency has changed its position in this litigation. It added that the defendants have used SEC comments about the speech out of context.

This has been another attempt by SEC to shield Hinman’s speech. However, the defendants claim that the commission has wasted the court’s time by not obeying the order. It added that the commission is also trying to restart the discovery process in the lawsuit.