XRP Lawsuit: SEC “burdensome” argument or epitome of hypocrisy?

The latest update in the XRP lawsuit saw the SEC make yet another lousy attempt at avoiding responses. However, this time around the list of requested admissions amount to nearly 30,000. The SEC has filed an appeal for a telephone conference to further seek a protective order under FRCP 26(c)(1), relieving the plaintiff of any obligation to respond to the 29,947 requests for admission, totaling over 5,000 pages from Ripple in the final six hours of fact discovery on August 31.

SEC claims defendants’ requests to be “abusive and unreasonable”

The plaintiff argued that the defendants’ requests are “disproportionate” and that the process of responding would be crushingly burdensome. The SEC has also referred to other requests that the courts had formerly denied on a routine basis, instead of being “abusive, unreasonable, and oppressive”.

However, the plaintiff’s effort to play the victim has failed miserably as the commission loses public support as its hypocritic positions unveil, with the XRP lawsuit nearing the final verdict. While the SEC forced Ripple to spend over a million dollars for slack data discovery, the plaintiff still appeals for a protective order, merely because the commission believes that responding will be “burdensome”.

“These requests impose an extreme, disproportionate, and unnecessary burden on the SEC, and would require months of sustained work by the SEC’s counsel to prepare appropriate responses…Courts “routinely disallow” much less burdensome and excessive requests for admission on grounds that they are “abusive, unreasonable, and oppressive.”…These requests are also disproportionate because they would impose a crushing burden on the SEC and it is unclear how Defendants would ever use the SEC’s responses at trial or on summary judgment.”, stated the SEC in its letter to the court.

In the letter, the plaintiff also highlights that the Counsel for SEC and Ripple have conferred through emails, and video conferences on the issue in question. However, the parties have not been able to resolve their differences and remain at an impasse. Therefore, the SEC has filed for a protective order that will disallow the Defendants’ “abusive and unreasonable” requests for admission.