With Ripple Taking The Upper Hand In SEC Lawsuit, Could It End Soon?
With Ripple seemingly taking upper hand in the SEC lawsuit, could the case close soon? All recent rulings seem to point to a weakening of all the SEC’s principal arguments.
Ripple’s latest filing responded to a motion from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for partial reconsideration and clarification of the court’s ruling on Deliberative Process Privilege (DPP). The SEC asked the court to permit further documents to be presented to back claims that Bill Hinman’s 2018 speech should be covered by DPP.
Ripple’s response suggested that the U.S. regulator was only trying maneuver a “do-over” to turn around the court’s previous decision.
The filing read:
“The SEC’s Motion is an inappropriate attempt at a do-over simply because it is unhappy with the Court’s order on its prior briefing.”
According to the filing the SEC wanted a course reversal even after it had sworn that Hinman’s speech was his personal opinion. Ripple’s defense noted that the SEC “seems to argue the Speech should fall within an administrative twilight zone somewhere between a ‘personal view’ and ‘agency policy.’”
The recent court rulings have been more favorable for Ripple than the SEC. Last week, Judge Analisa Torres denied an SEC motion to file a reply in support of a motion to strike out Ripple’s fair notice defense.
Prior to that, the XRP community also welcomed the unsealing of two Ripple memos, which clearly show that XRP was not a security as Ripple’s general counsel, Stu Alderoty stated in the aftermath of their unsealing.
