Deaton Says SEC Likely To Attempt To Drag XRP Lawsuit Again

By Kevin • January 28, 2022 9:56 am • Comments

John Deaton, the attorney that is representing 65,000 XRP holders, recently shared his opinion on Twitter regarding how long he thinks it will take for the lawsuit to be resolved.

Currently, Deaton believes that the SEC is likely using this lawsuit to set an example and is highly likely to delay progress as much as possible.

Right now, the court is waiting for the production of documents that can share details regarding Hinman’s speech and any records of meetings with third parties.

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Any delays in getting these required documents will increase the chances of this lawsuit once again being dragged out longer than needed.

As of right now, XRP holdings still remain frozen in US-based exchanges during this period of time.

Deaton is hopeful that a DPP ruling would lead to settlement.

Financefeeds shares Deaton’s statements and the ruling:

“I said if the Judge pierced the deliberative process privilege and ordered the SEC internal documents produced, we could see a settlement w/in 90 days thereof.

I also said if the judge rules the documents don’t have to be produced to Ripple, I believe the case will go to Summary Judgement; and, possibly, a jury verdict”, he explained.

The judge gave a mixed ruling, with the SEC being able to keep most of the documents from being produced, but Ripple scored two significant victories:

    1. the emails with ex-SEC Director Hinman’s draft speech were deemed not privileged and ordered to be turned over;

    2. the notes taken by SEC lawyers regarding meetings with third parties not associated with Ripple must also be produced and are very likely to include exchanges with ConsenSys, Joseph Lubin from Ethereum, and other relevant material.

The key point to understand here is that if the documents that are being requested right now contain any evidence that will help Ripple’s case or goes against the SEC’s case, we could see a settlement coming up soon.

The issue is, however, that the SEC has to be forced to turn those documents over.

If the SEC is not forced, they will decide to never share the documents or will delay sharing them as long as possible.

The court has also made the decision to allow the SEC to file a motion which will cause an additional delay.

As of right now, it is reported that the motion papers will be served on Feb 25 which will take us until mid-March before getting a ruling from the judge.

The losing side of the ruling will likely then issue an objection to the ruling and make an appeal which then drags the case to the month of April.

FinanceFeeds shares more of Deaton’s thoughts:

John Deaton added that Ripple might need to seek leave from the Court for an expert to supplement a report incorporating some of these documents, which brings oral arguments to the end of May.

Even if both Judge Netburn and Judge Torres rule that the Hinman emails must be turned over to Ripple, the SEC might still attempt to file an interlocutory appeal to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals although such interlocutory appeals for matters related to discovery motions are generally not allowed, he explained.

Earlier in the month, the prediction that the lawsuit would be resolved in the August or September timeframe was made by attorney Jeremy Hogan.

However, that prediction was made before the SEC’s requested the court to reconsider its ruling on the deliberative process privilege.

Because of this back and forth regarding this new DPP chapter, it appears that the SEC is desperate to drag this out as long as possible for some reason.

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