That United States Securities and Exchange Commission has requested that the “Hinman Speech” materials be sealed, claiming they would not affect the court’s summary judgment.

On December 22, the SEC filed a request to seal the summary judgment document, requesting that several pieces of information and documents, including Hinman speech materials, be sealed.

These documents refer to a speech by William Hinmana former SEC Treasury director, in June 2018 at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit, where he reportedly stated this ether ETH/USDthe native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is not a security.

Ripple, which is pursuing a lawsuit against the SEC, considers this speech a crucial piece of evidence.

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The SEC’s goals outweigh public rights

In its filing, the SEC argued that its goals outweigh the “right of the public” to access records that “have no relevance” to the court’s summary judgment.

It also requested that any mention of the Hinman speech documents be “redacted” from the defendants’ files.

In addition, the SEC sought information about its experts, ripple XRP/USD Investors who have submitted statements and internal SEC records showing debate and deliberation by SEC officials sealed.

This development comes just weeks after Ripple Labs submitted its final response to the SEC on Dec. 2, signaling that the two-year litigation could be settled soon.

On October 21, after 18 months and six court orders, Ripple admitted it had access to Hinman’s speech documents, but the SEC insisted the recordings remain classified.

A US judge previously denied the SEC’s request that the Hinman records be kept secret and criticized the agency for acting hypocritically.

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