My answer is going to be a deconstruction of, or a rebuttal to, @JuanM's answer.

we want to be as transparent as we can.

No, you don't; or at least - you don't act like it. If you wanted to be transparent, you would state how you believe Monica Cellio violated the CoC, or retract that claim and reinstate her. @Mehrdad asked the CTO this question directly, with over 1300 MSE users joining him.

Also, you've begun making fundamental changes to the network unilaterally and suddenly, like the doubling of question upvote reputation - so you're being opaque about your decision-making processes.

Under guidance from our legal team,

That is an unacceptable excuse. You decide how you run this network, not your legal team.

we are not able to respond to anything regarding Monica's situation.

You are able to, you are choosing not to. And that is apparently because if you do answer questions from the community, truthfully, your ability to fend off Monica's legal action might diminish. Well, tough cookies, you owe us answers. Also - you shouldn't be arguing this case in the first place; rather, you should just reinstate Monica and compensate her, and the legal case will go away.

By the way - doing that will not even impact your overall direction and policy, which many of us disapprove of. The fact that you're choosing not to do so can be one of: stuborness; internal organizational disharmony; or perceived benefit from going all the way on it. I wonder which one it is.

We will not be answering any questions or comments about that going forward.

Monica is just the sacrificial lamb. It's not really about Monica, it's about the way you (= SE Inc.) manage the SE network. You're not talking to us about that either.

Starting today, also under direction from our legal team, we will be removing the "community-voted ads" not related to the subject of the site.

You're making it sound as though it's those strict lawyers forcing your hand, and not a voluntary action on your part. I believe that's not true. But - you know what? Why don't you show us those directions from your legal team? Show us a copy of the exchange in which they told you must not answer users' questions.

This is not an appropriate use of the free ad space donated to communities to serve their topic space. To date, we've been very hands-off with the ads served through this program, but removing off-topic protests and other such commentary is necessary and appropriate, even if it wasn't about Stack Exchange.

I thought you said you were removing those ads because of your legal team...?

We know this is going to be received with mixed results, and we wish we had better news but we cannot elaborate further or respond to this situation anymore.

Of course you can elaborate further. You're doubling-down on your stance, because otherwise, the egg on your face would show very visibly.

We sincerely hope you understand.

Unfortunately, we do understand. The question is, do you (i.e. SE Inc.) understand that you're putting this entire network in danger by your repressive attitude towards the community of users (not to mention the future of your company)?

... and the disingenuous posts on your (SE Inc.) part in recent weeks are not helping, either.