Newly Surfaced Notes Could Further Dampens SECs Lawsuit Against Ripple

The case between Ripple and the SEC continues to take dramatic turns. Ripple has filed a motion to compel the SEC to hand over notes taken at a meeting between its CEO and a former SEC commissioner. However, the SEC has objected to the motion, invoking deliberative process privilege (DPP).

The SEC continues punting on Ripple

Ripple’s motion, filed on February 10 with Judge Sarah Netburn, seeks to have the SEC turn over notes taken during a 2018 meeting between Brad Garlinghouse and former SEC commissioner Elad Roisman.

In the motion, Ripple stated that the new document was revealed to be in the custody of the SEC one week after the court ruled on documents the SEC had to turn over.

However, the SEC has proceeded to add the document as one of those it is exempt from turning over.

Ripple argued that the SEC could not do this for several reasons. The motion noted that the meeting was between the SEC and a third party and so could not be called an internal document or one with attorney/client privilege.

It also added that the SEC had previously admitted that the meeting was in no way related to an investigation of Ripple.

The meeting was between the SEC and Mr. Garlinghouse, a third party who would break any attorney/client privilege. And the SEC has conceded as it must that this meeting was not about any potential investigation of Ripple, the motion said.

The SEC’s controversy continues

Community members have dug up why the SEC may be reluctant to turn over the document. According to a tweet by XRP supporter “WKahneman,” Brad Garlinghouse’s recollection of the meeting shows that the SEC commissioner told him that XRP was not a security.

The community member points out that the SEC reluctance to turn over the document was deeply troubling

The sentiment is shared by many observers who think that the SEC does not have a very strong case against Ripple.

Meanwhile, the SEC had also been dragged to court by Empower Oversight, a US advocacy group over the Ripple case. Empower says that the SEC has failed to comply with several applications it filed under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) for the SEC to give it documents related to XRP.