Will Hinman Documents Become Public Soon? As Ripple Opposed SEC Motion to Keep Them Sealed

“We Will Know ‘Shortly'” Will The Hinman Documents Become Public?

Hogan & Hogan partner Attorney Jeremy Hogan has asserted that the XRP community will soon find out the court’s decision on the controversial Hinman documents.

The pro-XRP attorney following the US Securities and Exchange Commission case against Ripple said this in a tweet today responding to Ripple’s reply to the SEC’s omnibus motions. Unsurprisingly, Ripple has asked Judge Analisa Torres to deny the SEC’s motion to seal the Hinman documents.

Will the Court force the SEC to disclose the Hinman emails to the public?

We should know very shortly… https://t.co/KG6fABbqbw

— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy1) January 10, 2023

Recall that the SEC in its omnibus motions filed on December 22 last year, requested that the court keep the contentious documents out of public record. The regulator argued they had no bearing on the court’s summary judgment decision. In addition, the SEC again iterated the claim that they were protected by attorney-client privilege and that their disclosure would impact the openness of future SEC policy deliberations. 

In response, Ripple has argued that it relied on the Hinman documents in its summary judgment motions, consequently asserting that they may be considered in the court’s summary judgment decision, per the filing shared by Attorney James K. Filan today. While the blockchain company concedes that Judge Torres had previously said they might be inadmissible, it points out that this was before the court got access to the documents and the opportunity to get Ripple’s view on them.

In addition, Ripple argues that the documents are “judicial documents” even if they are not considered in the court’s summary judgment decision and, as such, should not be sealed, barring “the most compelling reasons.” Ripple asserts that the SEC failed to satisfy this condition in its omnibus motion.

Furthermore, the defendants point out that the courts have historically denied motions to seal after ruling that attorney-client privileges do not protect documents.

In response to inquiries on when the community can expect Judge Torres to decide on the fate of the controversial documents, Hogan noted that the judge had ruled quickly on sealing motions so far. The attorney implied a time window of a week or two based on precedence.

The Judge has ruled on sealing motions very quickly so far. I think within a week or two (and at least once even faster).

— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy1) January 10, 2023

It bears mentioning that the Hinman documents refer to emails and other SEC communications associated with the draft of Bill Hinman’s controversial 2018 speech. The then SEC director of corporation finance had publicly stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities. 

As Ethereum also had an Initial Coin Offering sale, Ripple attorneys opted to understand why the SEC was treating XRP differently. However, the SEC strongly resisted these efforts arousing great public curiosity about its contents.

Recently, Attorney John Deaton has speculated that the Hinman documents were not the smoking gun the XRP community believed them to be, citing Ripple’s sparse referencing of them in briefs. The friend of the court, on behalf of XRP holders, suggests that while the documents may speak to the SEC’s malicious intent, it is now likely that there was no mention of XRP as opposed to previous suspicions.

Nevertheless, community members remain curious about the contents of these hotly contested emails and believe they have the right to see them.