Bitrabo Editorial
The founder of CryptoLaw and a pro-XRP lawyer, John Deaton, has expressed his opinion about the controversial Hinman speech document. Deaton has contested the SEC’s argument that the emails and speech drafts were the personal views of Hinman, as they contained multiple inputs from top SEC officials and were broad. According to Deaton, the document’s breadth made it too much to be Hinman’s personal opinions, even though they are referred to as such by the SEC.
The Background of the Hinman Docs and Deaton’s Viewpoint
The emails and speech drafts in the contested Hinman documents are from William Hinman, the former SEC Director of Corporate Finance Division. Hinman delivered the speech at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in June 2018, where he stated that Ether and BTC are not securities. This document has been a subject of controversy between Ripple and the SEC lawsuit, as Ripple supports its defense of the Hinman speech. Despite court orders, the SEC kept the speech documents under seal, but Ripple recently requested they be unsealed. However, the SEC argued that they were irrelevant to the case but Judge Torres denied the motion and granted the request to make the documents public.
The SEC now argues that the Hinman documents are his personal opinion, but Deaton believes they contain too many drafts and inputs for them to be a single person’s opinion. The documents also show the contribution of various SEC officials, which the court must consider in making its decision. Deaton added that the Hinman documents contained 63 emails and 52 unique drafts, which is too much for one person’s opinion.
Deaton’s Tweet Sparks Debate Throughout Crypto Community
Deaton’s tweets caused a reaction from the crypto community, with former SEC lawyer Marc Fagel sharing his opinion on the SEC’s position. Fagel believes that if a statement by an SEC official is not an enforcement action or rulemaking voted on by five commissioners at the agency, it represents the speaker’s personal views. He asked why people are not understanding the SEC’s stance on the lawsuit. Responding to Fagel’s comment, Deaton said that people understand the concept, but the SEC is always transactional in its arguments.
Following Judge Torres’ order to unseal the Hinman document, attorney James K. Filnan noted that both parties filed a joint letter to extend the time for making the speech documents public.
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