The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been proactive in keeping discovery alive. Thereby, causing more delays and sparking some of the harshest communications witnessed to date in a lawsuit of this magnitude. The SEC filed a motion to redact some portions of selected meetings’ notes between the agency’s third parties. This incorporated a sequel to 13 January 2022, ruling on the deliberative process privilege (DPP).
Instead of Plaintiff delaying it further, the decision to grant or deny the SEC’s request for redaction was left to Judge Sarah Netburn.
All eyes are on you
Defendants, surprisingly, decided to take a different route this time as they penned down responses to the SEC. Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen also responded to the SEC’s request to redact some portions of the meeting minutes between the agency and other third parties.
James Filan, a renowned attorney highlighted this development in a 4 April tweet. As per the filing, Ripple Labs relied on SEC’s representations and the Court’s review.
#XRPCommunity #XRP #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP Ripple responds to the SEC motion regarding the redactions, and relies on the SEC’s representations and the Court’s review to determine whether the redacted portions “expressly reflect the authors’ own thinking or reflect pic.twitter.com/KyzORVf3FM
— James K. Filan ???? (@FilanLaw) April 4, 2022
Notably, the defendant won’t challenge SEC’s motion to redact some portions of its handwritten notes between the agency and third parties. Instead,
“relies on the SEC’s representations and the Court’s review to determine whether the redacted portions expressly reflect the authors’ own thinking or reflect deliberations or communications among SEC staff during the meeting.”
Essentially because only the Court and the SEC analyzed the unredacted documents, Ripple must ‘defer to the Court to decide whether the DPP protects the redacted portions,’ the filing added. Filan reiterated,
“Because they haven’t seen the full documents, the defendants cannot determine if the redactions are appropriate. That is why they must defer to Judge Netburn’s interpretation and judgment.”
Interesting to note that Ripple could rechallenge the motion. Now the question is- Should Ripple feel that the notes do not reflect the personal opinion of the SEC’s staff?
Rippling effects caused by waiting
Needless to say, the XRP community remains annoyed with the arising situation. At the moment, the Ripple community awaited decisions on the motion for reconsideration, the motion to strike the supplemental expert report, the move to compel turnover of the Estabrook notes, and now the redactions.
I wish I knew. We’re waiting for decisions on the motion for reconsideration, the motion to strike the supplemental expert report, the motion to compel turn over the Estabrook notes, and now the redactions.
— James K. Filan ???? (@FilanLaw) April 5, 2022
Different enthusiasts raised concerns. Now the question remains- Can this delay have after-effects on XRP? The token did suffer a new 1.5% correction in the past 24 hours.
XRP traded at the $0.82 mark at press time as per CoinMarketCap. Interestingly, XRP remains ‘well-positioned for an explosive 45% rally to $1.25 despite such drawdowns.
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/ripple-is-relying-on-the-courts-decision-to-determine-this-but-whats-the-sec-connection/