If you thought the It Ends With Us saga was over, you thought wrong. Despite the judge throwing out Justin Baldoni‘s $400 million USD ($613 million AUD) lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, his legal team has clapped back at Lively’s assertion that the dismissal was a “victory”.
In a statement to E! News, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, maintained that the legal battle is far from over.
“Ms. Lively and her team’s predictable declaration of victory is false,” he said.
“So let us be clear about the latest ruling.”
“This case is about false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively’s own team conveniently describes as ‘untraceable’ because they cannot prove what never happened,” Freedman continued.
“Most importantly, Ms. Lively’s own claims are no truer today than they were yesterday, and with the facts on our side, we march forward with the same confidence that we had when Ms. Lively and her cohorts initiated this battle and look forward to her forthcoming deposition, which I will be taking.”
On the other side, Lively’s lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb are pretty sure that this actually is the end of us the lawsuit.
“No amount of spin, bluster, or creative accounting from Baldoni’s legal team will change the embarrassing reality staring them in the face,” Hudson and Gottlieb told E! News.
“The plan to sue Blake Lively and her family into oblivion has been a complete and total failure.”
The blistering statements come after Judge Lewis J Liman ruled that Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds — in which he accused the famous couple of creating a smear campaign to extort him — was not viable because Lively’s claims of sexual harassment were legally protected and immune from the suit.
To make things worse for Baldoni’s legal team, their $250 million ($383 million AUD) defamation suit against The New York Times was also tossed, with Judge Liman finding that the article was protected under “fair report” privilege.
Judge Liman did say that Baldoni and his team may file to revise the lawsuit if they’d like to pursue claims that Lively breached their contract. They have until June 23 to amend these claims and refile.
While there’s likely more to come, I think it’s fair to say it has been a very expensive week for Baldoni.
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