Appeals court: Uber engineer can’t get help from the 5th Amendment

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Anthony Levandowski, the embattled Uber engineer who has been accused of illegally downloading thousands of documents while he worked at Google, won't be able to stop Uber from handing over documents by pleading the Fifth Amendment.

That's the decision (PDF) of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, published today. Levandowski filed an emergency motion with the appeals court, seeking to overturn the decision. The decision was made by US District Judge William Alsup, who had told Levandowski he would need to hand over an unredacted privilege log.

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

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