A federal judge warned the lawyers of Justin Baldoni against the legal maneuvers which, according to him, could be intended to “promote the scandal resulting from potentially extinct declarations”.
US district judge Lewis Liman hit the Court’s file on Thursday a letter from Bryan Freedman, Baldoni representative, accusing Blake Lively’s legal team to try to extort Taylor Swift. Freedman said that the actress’s lawyer had contacted a lawyer’s law firm Venable, who represents the singer, and demanded that Swift publish a public declaration in support of the actress under the threat of publishing personal text messages in possession of Lively if the request was refused.
“The lawyer is informed that the future abusive use of the court file could be welcomed by sanctions,” wrote Liman.
In the letter tabled on Wednesday, Freedman said that a Swift representative “addressed these inappropriate and apparently exore threats” in at least one written message to the Lively legal team. He moved to access to these communications, as they would justify affirmations that Living is intimidating and binding witnesses in the sprawling legal battle. Additional details were not provided beyond an anonymous source “very likely to have reliable information”.
Michael Gottlieb, a lively lawyer, denied the accusations.
In Thursday’s decision, the court stressed that it had the power to engrave the documents in the case which are “abusive” and “incorrect”. He said that the letter invites you to press the tumult by suggesting that Lively and his lawyers tried to extort a high level celebrity. Authorizing the standing deposit would allow the court of the court to serve as a “reservoir of defamation declarations for press consumption,” wrote Liman.
Lively lawyers argued that the Baldoni legal team had tabled the letter to whiten the defamatory allegations concerning the actress through the case. Under the New York law, there is immunity of responsibility for the press in the context of reports on deposits and procedures before the court.
A representative of Lively refused to comment.
The letter was tabled a few days after Swift was assigned to appear by the Baldoni legal team. His involvement in duel proceedings concerns an incident in which Lively invited the It ends with us Director of her New York house in 2023 to discuss changes to a roof scene at the start of the film. Once there, Baldoni said that he had been ambushed by Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and his close friend, Swift, according to the trial, which cites communications which include the name “Taylor”. The Megastars congratulated the version of Lively on the scene, pressing Baldoni to accept the revisions.
