Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn has denied the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s request for documents related to Ripple’s lobbying efforts.
This comes after the court prohibited the agency from getting its hands on the legal advice the company sought or received regarding XRP’s regulatory status last month.
In her June 15 order, the judge states that Ripple’s lobbying efforts “are not relevant,” reiterating her previous stance:
In the same vein, Ripple's lobbying efforts regarding the status of XRP are not relevant; and any relevancy argument is outweighed by the burden of production.
As reported by U.Today, the SEC claimed that the company paid Chris Giancarlo, an ex-chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to publicly "support its litigation position":
Ripple relies on statements that it paid that official to make to support its litigation position…Since Ripple has put at issue its purported lack of “fair notice” based on the beliefs of market participants, the SEC is entitled to test whether the supposed “confusion” was bought and paid for by Ripple, as opposed to a reflection of genuine market sentiment.
Netburn has also denied the SEC’s request to compel the production of documents post-dating its complaint. The request has been dismissed without prejudice, meaning that the regulator can give it another try.
At the same time, the judge has partially granted the SEC's motion to conduct additional depositions. The agency will be able to depose five more Ripple employees, including former CFO Ron Will.
Yesterday, the court also extended the pre-trial discovery phase by two months, delivering a setback to the San Francisco-based company.
@u.today The court denies the ##SEC 's request for documents related to ##Ripple ’s lobbying efforts ##crypto ##cryptonews ##XRParmy ##xrpcommunity ##XRPNews
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Vladislav Sopov