Adding fuel to the already legal battle fire, Justin Baldoni’s lawyers accuse Blake Lively’s attorney of threatening to release private text messages between the actress and Taylor Swift if the pop icon didn’t support her longtime friend in the situation.
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In court documents obtained by Page Six, Baldoni’s attorneys claim a source told them that Lively’s lead counsel, Michael Gottlieb of Willkie Farr, demanded that Swift release a statement of support for Lively.
If Swift refused, Gottlieb allegedly threatened to release private text messages of a personal nature that Lively had.
However, in a statement to Page Six, Gottlieb called the accusations “categorically false.”
“We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations,” he stated on behalf of himself and Lively. “Which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality.”
Baldoni’s team then claimed that the anonymous source was someone “who is highly likely to have reliable information.”
The insider told them that Lively requested that Swift “delete their text messages.” The exact date the demands were made remains unclear.
The actor/filmmaker’s lawyers further stated that a Swift rep had “addressed these inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats in at least one written communication transmitted to Mr. Gottlieb.”
“It is those communications that the Wayfarer Parties seek to obtain by way of subpoena,” the team claimed. “As they would evidence an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.”
Blake Lively’s Attorney Continues to Deny All Allegations Made by Justin Baldoni’s Legal Team About Taylor Swift
Meanwhile, Gottlieb continued denying all of the allegations Baldoni’s legal team made.
“This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers,” he said. “Who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process.”
Blake Lively’s attorneys have since filed a motion to strike the allegations.
The latest round of allegations made by Baldoni’s team was in response to Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds’ motion to throw out a subpoena Baldoni’s lawyers filed for Swift’s legal team at Venable.
Venable has since responded to the subpoena, stating that they have “nothing to do with the film at issue or any of the claims or defenses asserted in the underlying lawsuit.”
“There is no reason for this subpoena other than to distract from the facts of the case and impose undue burden and expense on a non-party,” the law firm said, per Billboard.