Pro-XRP Lawyer’s Alarming Revelation: Ripple’s Fate Hangs on Judge’s Next Move

Judge Analisa Torres has ruled against the motion to seal the Bill Hinman speech in the ongoing SEC vs. Ripple trial. During the speech, Bill Hinman, who served as the director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance at the time, expressed his belief that neither Bitcoin nor Ether should be classified as securities.

While this might come out as a major win for Ripple, attorney Jeremy Hogan has one important point to note based on the discussion of the Hinman emails. It appears that the Judge has not made a ruling on the Fair Notice Defense issue. He said that it is possible that the Judge simply hasn’t reached that stage yet, as such matters are typically addressed towards the end of legal proceedings. Alternatively, it could indicate that the Judge is not inclined to grant the SEC’s motion regarding the Fair Notice Defense. 

Hogan wrote on Twitter, “I don’t take anything from the Order as to how the Judge will rule (with one caveat). The Order was only about what we are allowed to see. All of the “evidence” was already determined relevant. So you can’t really read anything into the fact she says it’s relevant here.”

Hogan also said that there is a possibility that the Judge could be moving the Fair Notice Defense (FND) issue to trial. If this were to happen, it could potentially be unfavorable for Ripple. The reason for this is that typically a trial on the Fair Notice Defense would only occur if Ripple had already been found to have violated Section 5 of the relevant law. 

One of the Twitter users posed an important question to Hogan and asked, “Do you think that sealing the info regarding ODL suggests it is not a part of her consideration, then?” The attorney replied saying, “No, the sealing of evidence and relevance of evidence are two completely different issues.”