Judge denies Coinbase's request to disclose Gary Gensler's personal communications

At a hearing on Thursday, Katherine PolkFailla, a judge at the Southern District Court of New York, rejected Coinbase's request to disclose personal communications of Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. SEC, and asked it to re-plan and set up a briefing schedule. Earlier in June, Coinbase sought court approval to subpoena SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's personal communications related to cryptocurrencies during his tenure and in the four years before he was appointed chairman. Judge Faill said she was "actually very surprised by the request made to Gensler in a personal capacity at the beginning of the hearing." At the end of the hearing, after both parties explained their arguments, the judge still believed that Coinbase's request was inappropriate, but asked it to file a motion to force a formal procedure so that both parties could elaborate on their arguments in more depth, but "basically all the arguments did not impress me," PolkFailla said. Jorge Tenreiro, a senior SEC trial attorney, said Gensler’s communications before he became SEC chairman were not relevant to the case, and said the SEC chairman was neither a fact witness nor an expert witness in the case, which could set a worrying precedent in future cases. (CoinDesk)