Attorney John Deaton Shares Why Ripple Has Not Broadcasted Hinman’s Documents

Following the SEC’s release of the William Hinman documents to Ripple in October, members of the XRP community hoped to have access to them. However, the crypto solutions company goes on to keep these controversial documents away from the public, giving room for several questions from the XRP community.

Among those seeking to get their eyes on Hinman’s documents is the entity Digital Assets Investor (DAI). On Tuesday, the entity enquired from the renowned XRP community lawyer representing over 75k XRP holders in court to know the reasons Ripple is withholding the documents from the public. 

The Digital Asset Investor Twitter account wrote, “Hey John Deaton, can we get an update on this.  So Ripple has the documents.  What is preventing them from being released “at the SEC’s insistence”?  Why are they in a position to insist anything? To me this is everything.”

In response, the founder of Crypto-Law, John Deaton remarked that the San Francisco-based cross-border payment firm will be violating the court’s order if they publicized the documents. He added that there was a legal agreement between the SEC and Ripple to keep Hinman’s document confidential. 

“There’s a protective order in place between the parties. When one side marks something “confidential” the other side cannot disclose or release them. If you do, you are in violation of the Court’s protective order. We see them if the SEC agrees or the Court orders them unsealed,” he wrote. 

Read Also: Top US Lawyers Share Strong Reasons Why the SEC Won’t Win Ripple Executives in XRP Lawsuit

Why is Hinman’s Speech Crucial?

In 2018, the ex-SEC officer, William Hinman, who worked as the Director of Corporation Finance made a speech, highlighting that Ethereum (ETH) is not a security. But in December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, stating that XRP is a security and that the company’s executives violated securities law by selling unregistered securities. 

In the course of clarifying that XRP is not a security in court, Ripple’s lawyers referred to the 2018 speech by the former SEC officer, citing that XRP possesses similar characteristics to Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). While Ripple filed several motions demanding that the SEC release all the drafts and emails relating to Hinman’s speech to them and the court, the U.S. security agency deployed many tactics to conceal the documents. 

However, after 6 court orders and nearly two years, the SEC finally released the drafts of the infamous 2018 speech to Ripple, insisting on confidentiality. Ripple General Counsel, Stuart Alderoty wrote, “over 18 months and 6 court orders later, we finally have the Hinman docs (internal SEC emails and drafts of his infamous 2018 speech). While they remain confidential for now (at the SEC’s insistence), I can say that it was well worth the fight to get them.” 

Read Also: XRP Lawsuit: John Deaton States Why SEC Motion for Summary Judgment Would Be Denied

It is believed that the content of the documents could favor Ripple’s argument in the XRP lawsuit, giving them an edge over the United States securities watchdog. Recently, Judge Analisa Torres also gave a ruling that also favored Ripple more than the SEC regarding their Daubert motions.

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