US Court Of Appeals Crushes Uber’s 5th Amendment Defense In Waymo Case

Uber’s defense team covering Anthony Levandowski recently tried to use the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid having to give up on some potentially incriminating evidence with regards to its legal battle with Google’s Waymo. The US Court of Appeals denied the motion, saying that the Fifth will not be able to help Levandowski or Uber in this case.

The motion to invoke the Fifth is related to some unredacted documents that Levandowski might have, which consist of files that he is being accused of stealing from Waymo when he was still employed at the company. As a result of the Court of Appeals’ order to release said documents, Uber has no choice but to comply, which could potentially strengthen Waymo’s case against them, Business Insider reports.

It’s worth noting that the order by the court does not necessarily force Levandowski from keeping silent in order to avoid self-incrimination. However, this right does not extend to Uber itself. As a result, if the cab-hailing firm is holding to some or all of the 14,000 documents that Waymo is alleging Levandowski stole, it will need to turn it over.

In the court’s ruling, as seen in this PDF from Ars Technica, US District Judge William Alsup is also ordering Levandowski to submit privilege logs in their unredacted format. These logs are the key to Waymo’s victory since they could potentially indicate that Levandowski was doing questionable things while he had access to Waymo’s company secrets.

"Mr. Levandowski argues that he is entitled to relief under the Fifth Amendment because production of the unredacted privilege log could potentially incriminate him," the order reads. "We are not persuaded that the district court erred in its ruling requiring defendants to produce an unredacted privilege log."

The stakes are getting higher for Uber as well since the court will be looking into an injunction order next week. If the ruling goes in favor of Waymo, Levandowski will be officially cut off from Uber’s self-driving car project.