NEWSIt's War: Blake Lively Seeks Justin Baldoni's Phone Records in Search of Smear Campaign Evidence
Blake Lively subpoenaed Justin Baldoni for his phone records to prove he organized a smear campaign against her.
Blake Lively isn’t backing down!
The It Ends With Us lawsuit is heating up, with Lively now going after her costar and director Justin Baldoni’s phone records to prove he orchestrated a smear campaign against her.
Blake Lively wants to access Justin Baldoni's phone records to 'expose the full web of individuals who were involved in the smear campaign against her.'
On December 31, 2024, The Age of Adaline star filed a lawsuit in New York federal court, accusing Baldoni, his publicist, Wayfarer Studios and others of "retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns."
A few weeks later, Baldoni hit back with his own lawsuit, accusing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of running a smear campaign against him. He’s also suing The New York Times for libel over their December story featuring Lively’s claims.
Now, the Gossip Girl alum star’s legal team is digging deeper.
On Wednesday, February 12, they issued subpoenas to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cloudflare Inc. and AOL, demanding phone records tied to Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, and Wayfarer Studios co-founder Steve Sarowitz. They’re also targeting publicist Melissa Nathan and PR executive Jennifer Abel.
Justin Baldoni filed a defamation lawsuit against Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
“Phone records belonging to all of the individual defendants will expose the full web of individuals who were involved in the smear campaign against Ms. Lively,” a spokesperson for the actress said in a statement. “Such records will provide critical and irrefutable evidence not only about who, but also about when, where, and how their retaliation plan came together and operated.”
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- Justin Baldoni Promises to Launch Website Showing 'All Correspondence' and 'Relevant Video' to Squash Blake Lively Claims
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Lively’s attorneys, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, doubled down, adding, “Ms. Lively has initiated discovery that will expose the people, tactics and methods that have worked to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ her reputation and family over the past year. We will now receive all of the ‘receipts’ that, unsurprisingly, are nowhere to be found on Mr. [Bryan] Freedman’s website, and like Ms. Lively, those ‘receipts’ will have their day in court.”
Justin Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman believes that the subpoena filed is a 'massive fishing expedition.'
Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, recently created a public website displaying Baldoni’s amended lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds.
Lively isn’t stopping there. She reportedly plans to file an amended lawsuit of her own against Baldoni, Heath, Abel and Nathan next Tuesday, February 18. Though her team requested an extension until March 5, the court only granted four extra days. (The original deadline was February 14, per The Hollywood Reporter.)
Justin Baldoni is the director of 'It Ends With Us.'
Freedman fired back, calling Lively’s subpoena an outrageous invasion of privacy.
“Subpoenas are an ordinary part of the litigation process. What is extraordinary is what the Lively Parties are seeking. They are asking for every single call, text, data log, and even real-time location information for the past 2.5 years, regardless of the sender, recipient, or subject matter,” Freedman explained in a statement. “This massive fishing expedition demonstrates that they are desperately seeking any factual basis for their provably false claims. They will find none.”
