Forbes Contributor Amends Motion Requesting Access to Hinman Documents

Notably, the initial motion wrongly claimed that the SEC used the Hinman documents to support its arguments in its motion for summary judgment.

Forbes contributor and policy researcher Dr. Roslyn Layton has filed an amended motion to gain access to the hotly contested Hinman documents in the United States Securities and Exchange Commission case against Ripple.

Attorney James K. Filan, who has followed the case closely, disclosed this in a tweet today. According to the attorney, the initial filing wrongly claimed that the SEC cited the Hinman documents in support of its summary judgment motion.

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP Dr. Roslyn Layton has filed an Amended Motion to Intervene to petition the Court for access to the Hinman Speech Documents. Dr. Layton’s original request suggested that the SEC had offered the Hinman Speech Documents in support of its own… https://t.co/yAwolkWqM5 pic.twitter.com/Rq8gGGb9su

— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪 (@FilanLaw) February 22, 2023

Recall that, as The Crypto Basic reported, the policy researcher about a week ago had filed a motion requesting access to the documents in opposition to the SEC’s request to seal them. In a DC Journal opinion piece, Dr. Layton pointed out that the documents could clarify if Bill Hinman’s Ethereum interests motivated his speech or if there is confusion among SEC officials that could justify confusion among industry participants.

For context, the Hinman documents refer to emails and other materials related to the drafting of a speech by Bill Hinman at the 2018 Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit. In what is the closest thing to guidance from the SEC to the crypto industry, Hinman, the director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance at the time, declared Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other sufficiently decentralized network assets as non-securities.

In Dr. Layton’s latest piece, she highlights that it appears inconsistent for the SEC to deem XRP as a security and then classify ETH differently. Consequently, she suggests the regulator picks winners and losers in the market contrary to its mandate.

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Unsurprisingly, the Hinman speech has often taken center stage in the SEC’s case against Ripple, with the agency finally handing the documents over to Ripple after six court orders from two Judges. Nonetheless, in its omnibus motions, the market regulator has asked the court to keep the documents sealed, asserting that placing them on public record could discourage candid policy deliberations in the future.

The case over whether XRP is an unregistered security has endured for over two years and is now awaiting a court decision. Recently, Ripple’s General Counsel Stuart Alderoty hinted at the blockchain payments company’s readiness to fight the SEC all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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