The price of XRP, the coin associated with the American fintech firm Ripple, rose modestly today after news of what one lawyer called “a very big win for Ripple” in an ongoing court battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
At 09:40 UTC, XRP stood at USD 0.955, up 1.5% for the past 24 hours and down 12.2% for the past 7 days.
The “big win” referred to is a decision by the court handling the case to deny the SEC a motion to reconsider a deliberative process privilege (DPP) ruling, saying that:
“The SEC seeks to have it both ways.”
If granted, the DPP ruling would have given the SEC the right to withhold documents that Ripple’s lawyers say are central to the case.
Specifically, Ripple wants documents related to a speech held in June 2018 by the SEC director at the time, William Hinman, to be disclosed. In the speech, Hinman said that Ethereum’s native token ETH could not be classed as a security due to the fact that it was appropriately decentralized.
The lawyer who shared the comment on this latest outcome is James K. Filan, a Ripple community defense lawyer who has extensive experience in the SEC cases.
This is a very big win for Ripple.
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪90k+ (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) April 11, 2022
According to Filan, the SEC now has 14 days to file an objection to this decision to the District Judge.
Similarly, John E Deaton, another lawyer, member of the XRP community, and founder of CryptoLaw, said that the decision is “not just a win for Ripple and XRP holders, but for the judicial system.”
“The SEC is now officially in a hurt locker,” Deaton added.
This is not just a win for @Ripple and #XRPHolders, but for the judicial system. After the March 2021 hearing, I said we were lucky to get Judge Netburn. Some of you disagree, but I still believe it. The SEC is now officially in a hurt locker. https://t.co/MuSC8ORrd2
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) April 11, 2022
SEC allowed to redact meeting notes
Filan’s comments about Ripple’s “big win” came shortly after he had shared with his 91,000 Twitter followers that the court had granted a motion by the SEC to redact notes of meetings between SEC employees and representatives of other third parties in relation to the Ripple case.
#XRPCommunity #SECGov v #Ripple #XRP The court has granted the SEC’s motion and approved the SEC’s proposed redactions of the notes of the meetings between SEC employees and third parties. pic.twitter.com/hNKw97M6xv
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪90k+ (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) April 11, 2022
The news was met with anger from many members of the XRP community, with one user saying that it is “no surprise considering they don’t want to make the government look bad,” and another claiming that “the judges are working for [the] SEC.”
SEC conflicts of interest
The news of the court’s decision today comes after a whistle-blower group, known as Empower Oversight, released documents last Friday that the group said shed light on potential conflicts of interest among SEC officials.
According to the documents obtained by the group, the conflicts of interest specifically relate to Ethereum, and the question of whether ETH is a security or not.
The issue is central to the ongoing court case between Ripple and the SEC, with Ripple arguing that XRP cannot be considered a security if ETH is not considered to be one.
Source: Cryptonews
