Attorney Hogan said the U.S. SEC had lost its privilege issue over Hinmanâs documents.
In a tweet today, Hogan & Hogan law firm partner attorney Jeremy Hogan reiterates that the Securities and Exchange Commission has lost its âprivilegeâ argument over the drafts of Director William Hinmanâs June 2018 controversial speech.
With the SEC losing the privilege over Hinmanâs documents, the federal agency has chosen to move on to seal the documents from being filed or referenced publicly by Ripple, attorney Hogan said.
According to Hogan, the general rule for sealing documents from being filed publicly is that the moving party must show an overriding interest. Attorney Hogan added that the SECâs overriding interest in sealing Hinmanâs documents is the agencyâs argument that it will fight the DPP privilege in other courts.
âThe SEC lost the privilege issue, so itâs moving on to the âsealingâ issue. The general rule is the moving party must show an âoverriding interestâ ( I think is the verbiage) and the SEC is arguing it will fight the DPP privilege argument in other courts, and that is the interest.â Hogan said.
SEC Maintains That Hinmanâs Documents Are Privileged
His recent comments on the matter come less than two days after the Securities and Exchange Commission claimed that the drafts of Hinmanâs controversial speech were privileged. The SEC made it known in its recently-filed motion to seal certain documents in connection with the summary judgment motion.
The SEC said it surrendered Hinmanâs documents to Ripple after the court denied its objection to Judge Sarah Netburnâs ruling that the drafts were not protected by deliberative process or attorney-client privileges.
âThe SEC respectfully maintains that the Hinman Speech documents are protected by these privileges. But if these documents were to become a part of the public record, the SEC would be foreclosed from making any such argument in the future (on appeal in this litigation or other litigation), which would be highly prejudicial to the SEC,â the regulator noted.
Hogan Curious to Know the Content of Hinmanâs Documents
Reacting to the development, attorney Hogan said it âblows his mindâ that the Securities and Exchange Commission is still arguing that Hinmanâs documents are privileged despite losing the issue about â100 times.â Attorney Hogan added that the agencyâs quest to keep Hinmanâs documents away from the public makes him curious to know the content of the documents.
Meanwhile, attorney John Deaton, founder of Crypto Law, said Ripple has not yet released the drafts of Hinmanâs speech because there is a protective order between the parties over the documents.