Justin Baldoni’s legal team is doubling down on their claims that Blake Lively demanded Taylor Swift publicly support her after not attending this year’s Super Bowl.
According to court documents obtained by People on Thursday, May 15, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman sent a letter to Judge Lewis J. Liman on Wednesday, May 14, claiming that he spoke to a source close to Swift, 35, “who is highly likely to have reliable information.”
Freedman alleged that the insider told him Lively’s lawyers made “extortionate threats” to the law firm representing Swift and demanded that the singer “release a statement of support” for Lively.
Lively’s team quickly responded to the allegation according to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, also submitting a letter to the judge that called for Freedman’s to be thrown out.
UPDATE 5/14/25 at 6:57 p.m. — Blake Lively’s legal team filed a new motion to request that Justin Baldoni’s claims about her friend Taylor Swift be stricken from the record, Us Weekly can confirm. In the letter obtained by Us, Lively’s team noted that Baldoni’s letter was filed without “evidentiary support of any kind.” “It should […]
“The apparent intent of the Freedman Letter is to launder scandalous and defamatory allegations about Ms. Lively and opposing counsel into the press by abusing the Court’s docket,” Lively’s legal team wrote.
Following the response from Lively’s team, Freedman returned with a signed affidavit under the penalty of perjury with more details from the unnamed source and the allegations. In the legal document, Freedman claimed that he spoke to a “person very closely linked to Taylor Swift” on Valentines Day.
Freedman alleged that Swift’s lawyer was called by Lively’s lawyer and “requested, on Ms. Lively’s behalf, that Taylor Swift make a social media statement in support of Ms. Lively given her absence from the Super Bowl that year, and stated that if Ms. Swift failed to do so, Ms. Lively would release ’10 years’ of private texts with Ms. Swift.”
The source also claimed that Lively asked Swift to delete their past text messages “four or five months” prior.
On Thursday, Judge Liman granted Lively’s motion to strike Freedman’s letter and affidavit. There was no finding as to the validity of the claim and Baldoni’s team cannot pursue it in the case. The judge called it “improper” and “irrelevant to any issue before this Court.” He added that any “future misuse” of the court “may be met with sanctions.”
Lively’s legal team reacted to the legal win in a statement to Us.
“It took the court less than 24 hours to see through Mr. Freedman’s irrelevant, improper and inflammatory accusations, strike them, remove them from the court and warn Mr. Freedman that further misconduct may be met with sanctions,” the statement read.
Taylor Swift’s legal team is seeking to reject Justin Baldoni’s subpoena amid his ongoing legal battle with Blake Lively. According to legal documents obtained by Billboard on Tuesday, May 13, the legal firm representing Swift, 35, labeled the subpoena “an abuse of the discovery process” in a legal motion filed on Monday, May 12. (The […]
Lively and Baldoni’s legal case began following their experience working on It Ends With Us. In December 2024, Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment, fostering a hostile work environment and trying to ruin her reputation. Baldoni has vehemently denied the allegations. The director subsequently filed a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. Lively and Reynolds, 48, have denied Baldoni’s accusations.
Baldoni’s team has claimed that Swift, who is good friends with Lively, was secretly involved in the actress’ alleged production takeover. A subpoena sent to Swift earlier this month was, according to Freedman, in hopes to collect evidence pointing to the singer supporting Lively.
“Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film,” a spokesperson for Swift told Us in a Friday, May 9, statement. “She did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history.”
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