Ripple and Individual Defendants submitted a motion contesting the SEC’s unlawful assertion of the Deliberative Process and other rights, and the SEC has responded.
Agency’s reply to the privilege disagreement comes after a tense back-and-forth between the two parties, who disagree on what constitutes protected material.
As a result, Ripple’s lead attorney Matthew Solomon wrote to Judge Sarah Netburn, requesting her assistance in the discovery disagreement. The fact-finding phase is nearing a conclusion, but there are still many papers to be presented.
The SEC contends that the deliberative process privilege (DPP), filed in response to Ripple’s request, is a vital government benefit meant to improve the overall impression of the agency decisions by preserving and promoting frank conversation amongst officials.
In an argument, the plaintiff said that the court should not overlook the privilege and penalize open government discussions, especially where the internal pre-decisional, deliberative evidence sought by the Defendants, which they were ignorant of for long, is unrelated to any claim. The SEC has already provided defendants with a great quantity of discovery.
Still, Defendants argue that protected, non-public SEC discussions concerning the regulation of digital assets (not only XRP) are essential that the SEC’s crucial deliberative privilege should be waived.
Defendants took a step on the record the most probative. There is enough proof through the SEC discovery, which mentions that William Hinman, who served as the director of SEC Division of Corporation Finance, met with Ripple representatives and told that according to him, Ripple’s unregistered XRP sales to be securities sales and that Ripple should stop.
Ripple questions SEC about Deleted Relevant Information
According to the William Hinman deposition transcript, the SEC attempted to remove subtopics pertinent to the Ripple complaint. Ripple lawyer Reid Figel stated on page 254 that “information was erased,” shifting the accusation onto SEC Special Counsel Michael Seaman.
Jorge Tenreiro, SEC lead counsel, asked Reid about the proof of his claim. Reid replied that it depends on how they present it. He explained that some version of the second document that had subtopics related to the Ripple lawsuit was deleted by Michael Seaman.
The SEC’s lawyer then advised that he question William Hinman whether he instructed Seaman to delete it. “I don’t recall directing him to do that,” the former SEC director said in response.
Attorney Jeremy Hogan spent the weekend delving into both sides’ plans ahead of the “Hell Week,” which finishes on August 31.
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