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The documents are important in part because some of them may contain a correspondence between the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and the company's executives. Kramer has them because his company sued Facebook and accused the social media giant of ignoring users' privacy. Six4Three also said Zuckerberg had developed a plan that forced some of Facebook's rivals, or potential rivals, to go bankrupt.
Facebook had been beaten for months to prevent the publication of documents. It is now possible that their content will be revealed at the committee hearing this week.
In the case filed on Monday in court, Kramer's lawyers claimed that during a recent trip to London he had resisted the demands of British lawmaker Damian Collins to hand him the documents. But Kramer ended up "panicking" after a British official showed up at his hotel and ordered him to return the documents, the document said.
Facebook and Six4Three declined to comment. Collins, who heads the survey committee on Facebook, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
How the documents ended up in the UK
Kramer's story begins with Carole Cadwalladr, a Guardian journalist who covered Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Her lawyers suggested Monday in court that she was informing members of the British parliament of Kramer movements so that they know when he was in the country.
According to the court record, Cadwalladr told Kramer in August that she "would like to raise the case of Six4Three with Damian Collins". A few months later, Collins told Kramer that Cadwalladr had told him about Facebook-related documents in Kramer's possession.
At the time, Kramer had told Collins that he could not hand over the documents because they were under seal in California, the document says.
Things got worse earlier this month. Kramer told Cadwalladr that he was on a business trip to London. According to Monday's ranking, the reporter suggested meeting to discuss the case. Kramer agreed and gave him the address of his hotel.
Upon his arrival, Kramer received an email from Collins and his committee asking him to produce the documents. The court record says that he refused, citing California's ordinance sealing them.
These exchanges culminated in a visit to the Kramer Hotel last Wednesday by the House of Commons' Sergeant-at-Arms, according to the court record. Kramer's lawyers claim that the Sergeant-at-Arms has sent him an order requiring him to produce the documents.
The lawyers said that their client "does not know how" the committee found out where he was staying and that the only person he talked to about the location of his hotel was Cadwalladr.
Monday's court record provides no evidence that Collins has learned any information about Kramer's visit to Cadwalladr.
Cadwalladr declined to comment on this article.
After visiting the hotel, Kramer received another email from the committee that threatened to hold him in contempt of Parliament, according to the court record. Afraid of being prevented from leaving the country, he eventually went to Parliament to meet Collins without telling his lawyers.
The filing states that Collins and his staff kept Kramer "for two hours" and told him "that he was the subject of an active investigation, that he was now in disregard of the Parliament and that the sentence could include fines and a term of imprisonment ".
"At this point, Mr. Kramer panicked," says the document. Kramer downloaded the documents onto a USB stick and gave them to the committee.
The record notes that neither Kramer's company nor its lawyers "tolerate or approve of how Mr. Kramer solved this dilemma".
And after?
Collins said the committee was reviewing the documents – which he called "obviously of significant interest to his investigation" – so that he could decide how to proceed.
The documents could be made public during the hearing. Members of the British Parliament enjoy "parliamentary privilege", which gives them considerable leeway to debate issues without legal ramifications.
Facebook is also expected to file a memorial on the consequences of Kramer's request for Collins' documents, despite the US court's order banning their publication, including the problems this could pose under the US Constitution.
Earlier this year, CNN filed a joint petition with The Guardian in California court demanding that the documents be unsealed. This motion was unsuccessful. Cadwalladr reports for The Guardian and his sister newspaper The Observer.
