Blake Lively didn’t get her way!
The Gossip Girl star suffered another legal blow in her fight against Justin Baldoni on Friday! As we’ve been reporting, the actress requested to see the It Ends With Us director and his several of team members’ text and call data dating all the way back to December 2022! Her attorneys told People at the time that this was in an effort to “expose the people, tactics, and methods that have worked to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ her reputation and family over the past year.”
It’s no surprise that the Jane the Virgin‘s star’s team quickly fought back against this request, insisting she was going way too far with this. And it turns out a judge agreed!
Related: Blake Lively Has Lost TONS Of Instagram Followers Amid Legal Battle
In a new ruling obtained by DailyMail.com on Friday, Judge Lewis Liman rejected Blake’s request. The judge determined the discovery request was “overly intrusive and disproportionate to the needs of the case,” arguing that the timeframe of the phone records was way too broad compared to the scope of the allegations. He chose to protect Justin’s privacy, pointing out the phone data could contain information about associates of the Wayfarer parties involved (including Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel) or sensitive information such as medical records. He wrote:
“Lively mainly argues that the subpoenas will help to identify ‘the larger network of individuals’ who perpetuated a negative media campaign against her.”
However…
“But according to Lively’s complaint, this negative campaign did not begin until approximately August 2024 … it is therefore unclear how communications to and from Wayfarer Parties in 2022 and 2023 would reveal individuals who participated in the campaign.”
Yeah, it is a big difference! We could understand her wanting to see phone records from the tail end of the filming period, but going back so many years is a lot when her smear campaign allegations center on 2024. The judge acknowledged this, saying:
“Even assuming additional individuals participated in the alleged campaign, the hope that discovery will turn up information on such parties does not justify the broad scope of the subpoenas.”
The good news is that Blake will still be able to subpoena the records of the third parties her “complaint already identifies.” The filing stated:
“She is permitted to use the tools of discovery to identify the contact information or telephone numbers for those individuals.”
Similarly, the judge also denied a request from Justin’s team, in which they wanted Blake to be barred from asking third parties for similar discovery materials. The legal professional announced:
“The Wayfarer Parties may assert a privacy interest in their own phone records, but they have not provided any basis for asserting an interest in the communications of non-parties. […] Therefore, the Wayfarer Parties’ motion is denied as to the portions of the Subpoenas which seek the phone records of non-parties.”
So, it’s kind of a mixed result for both of them — but certainly helps Justin, for now. We’ll see if Blake can get what she wants from the other parties!
Thoughts? Share ’em (below).
[Image via Lia Toby/MEGA/WENN]
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