Ripple Labs' chief legal officer is calling for an investigation into the former Director of Corporation Finance at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), William Hinman, following the release of internal emails.

The emails suggest that Hinman may have ignored warnings from colleagues that a speech he made in 2018 declaring Ethereum as not a security contained inconsistencies or confusion.

Ripple Labs is using the emails as part of its defense in a lawsuit brought by the SEC alleging that the company sold XRP as an unregistered security. Ripple's legal counsel is calling for Hinman's speech to be removed from the SEC's website and for it to never again be used in discussions about whether a token is a security.