Silicon Valley-based tech company Ripple Labs has scored a major victory in its legal tussle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Yesterday, Judge Analisa Torres denied the SEC's motion to seal internal deliberation records concerning controversial remarks made by the agency's former director of corporation finance, William Hinman, about crypto assets.

The court rejected the SEC's motion to purge the Hinman documents, as these documents are judicial documents and there must be a strong presumption of public access.

"The Hinman Speech Documents would reasonably have the tendency to influence [the Court’s] ruling on a motion" an excerpt from the ruling said.

For background, in December 2020, the SEC accused Ripple of offering unregistered securities through its XRP sales.

Notably, part of the litigation focuses on documents related to Hinman's controversial 2018 speech, in which he stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities. However, Hinman made no comment on XRP, despite the token being one of the top three cryptocurrencies in 2018.

After the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, the blockchain company asked the commission for drafts of Hinman's speech. At the time Hinman made his controversial remarks, Ripple was eager to know what the SEC officials thought about XRP.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made significant efforts to prevent it from handing over the documents to Ripple. Interestingly, after 18 months and six court rulings, the SEC finally handed over these documents.

Despite having handed over the document, the SEC still made a motion, requesting to seal Hinman's speech delivered on December 22, 2023. However, the court rejected the motion on the grounds that Hinman's controversial speech draft is a judicial document.

James K. Filan shared this development. He is an experienced lawyer who has been closely following the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple.

Ripple CEO Responds

Meanwhile, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse celebrated the victory on Twitter. Garlinghouse, who is also a defendant in the case, promised that Ripple would soon share an unedited version of the Hinman documents publicly.