U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the Northern District of California has formally thrown a wrench into Uber's plan to tell jurors that Anthony Levandowski may have had an innocent reason for downloading Google's autonomous car files.

Corley ruled Monday that a March 29 conversation on the subject between then-CEO Travis Kalanick; Levandowski, then the head of Uber's driverless car division, and Uber litigation chief Angela Padilla is “classic attorney-privileged communications.” Corley's ruling, if adopted by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, appears to head off a nascent defense to Google's claims of trade secret theft.

Uber had taken the unusual position at a spirited hearing last week that the conversation was not privileged. Kalanick and Padilla say Levandowski admitted at the meeting that he downloaded files from Google, but did so only to ensure Google would pay him a promised bonus. According to Kalanick and Padilla, they encouraged Levandowski to tell his story to Alsup, but Levandowski instead asserted his Fifth Amendment rights.