On October 30, 2021, the SEC granted Ripple its motion to seal the privileged logs in response to the SEC’s filings.
Ripple’s defense managed to convince the court to seal the evidence brought about by the SEC’s submission of three documents for in-camera review.
After conferring with the SEC, the plaintiff did not object to filing the documents under seal. More importantly, the SEC already deemed these documents confidential, explaining the SEC’s passiveness in the filing.
In the letter from Attorney Matthew C. Solomon, the counsel of Bradley Garlinghouse, he explains what the privileged logs contained. According to the letter, Exhibit A is a privilege log deemed confidential by the Securities and Exchange Commission. On the other hand, Exhibit B was a document produced during litigation and deemed confidential by the SEC “pursuant to the Protective Order.”
The case gained media attention as the SEC continued to seek a Protective Order under the court.
On October 22, 2021, Ripple released an explanation for asserting the confidentiality of these documents by providing a redacted version to the court for in-camera review.
The attention happened when Ripple agreed with the defense to disclose the details contained in the document. More precisely, Ripple’s decision baffled the media as they tried to derive the reason why the company needed to review the documents it had no relation with in the first place.
Furthermore, Ripple called the SEC’s claims to disclose the discussions as weak and lacking legal relevance.
