Justin Baldoni’s team brought Taylor Swift into the It Ends With Us lawsuit. And now Blake Lively got a small win over the pop star’s inclusion. Baldoni lawyer Bryan Freedman wrote a letter with supposed claims about Swift and Lively in it. A judge ruled to strike it from the record.
In the letter, Freedman claims that an “unnamed source” told him that Lively threatened Swift if she did not delete private communications between the two. According to Freedman’s “source,” Lively was saying she’d release private conversations between herself and the “Anti-Hero” singer if her demands were not met. Lively’s team denies the rumors.
Lively’s legal team calls the claims “categorically false” and “completely untethered from reality” and now Judge Liman agreed to strike the letter from the record. The judge said that the letter “is improper and must be stricken.” Liman went on to write about how the inclusion of Swift’s name was meant to get headlines by Baldoni’s team.
“The sole purpose of the letter is to promote public scandal by advancing inflammatory accusations, on information and belief, against Lively and her counsel,” the judge wrote. “It transparently invites a press uproar by suggesting that Lively and her counsel attempted to ‘extort’ a well-known celebrity. Retaining the letter on the docket would be of no use to the court.”
Liman said that “federal court dockets” should not be “co-opted” to “promote scandal arising out of unproven, potentially libelous statements.” He went on to warn Baldoni’s team. “Counsel is advised that future misuse of the court’s docket may be met with sanctions,” Judge Liman wrote.
Lively’s team celebrated the news by releasing the following statement: “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.”
Swift has still not commented on the Lively side of the lawsuit but her representation did fight back when Baldoni included her in the lawsuit.
(featured image: Gotham/GC Images)
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