Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively's legal woes rage on as the former's legal counsel reportedly submitted a letter to the court claiming that the latter has threatened her longtime friend, Taylor Swift.
The Daily Mail has reported that in court letters filed on Wednesday, the Gossip Girl alum has allegedly threatened Swift, 35, with leaking their private chats, should she fail to publicly side with her. According to Today.com, the actress "demanded" that the songstress release a statement in her favor.
According to the outlet, however, presiding Judge Liman ordered the accusations to be struck from the record. On Thursday, May 15, he described Justin Baldoni's lawyer's letter as "improper" and said it "must be stricken."
"It is irrelevant to any issue before this Court and does not request any action from this Court," Judge Liman penned of attorney Bryan Freedman's accusations.
The latest drama between Taylor Swift, Blake Lively, and Justin Baldoni explored
According to Page Six, in their latest filing, Justin Baldoni's attorneys, of Wayfarer Studios, accused the actress' lead counsel, Michael Gottlieb of Willkie Farr, of threatening Venable, the law firm that represents the global pop star.
They claimed he “demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively, intimating that, if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released,” per the filing.
In an affidavit later submitted by Freedman, Blake Lively's legal counsel was further accused of threatening to "release ‘ten years’ of private texts” between the longtime friends. Freedman reportedly cited a “person very closely linked” to Swift, whom he refused to identify “out of respect for the individual in question."
In his statement, Judge Liman went on,
"The sole purpose of the Letter is to 'promote public scandal' by advancing inflammatory accusations, on information and belief, against Lively and her counsel. It transparently invites a press uproar by suggesting that Lively and her counsel attempted to 'extort' a well-known celebrity." He added, "Counsel is advised that future misuse of the Court’s docket may be met with sanctions."
A representative for the actress also issued a statement to Today.com in response to Judge Liman's decision:
“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."
For the unversed, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, It Ends With Us co-stars, have been embroiled in a legal battle since the former launched a lawsuit accusing the latter of s*xual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
Gottlieb also refuted these allegations in a statement to Page Six, calling them “categorically false.”
“We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality,” he said. He added, “This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers, 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.”
The pop star was reportedly subpoenaed last week, and according to Page Six, Lively's representative called Justin Baldoni a "bully" for doing so, telling the outlet that their team “continue[s] to turn a case of s*xual harassment and retaliation into entertainment for the tabloids.”
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