Justin Baldoni is fighting back against the latest demand from Blake Lively’s legal team!
Earlier this week, her attorneys, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, revealed the actress filed subpoenas for the phone records of the It Ends With Us director/actor and his associates, including publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, to find more “receipts” and “expose” the alleged smear campaign they orchestrated “to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ her reputation and family over the past year.” She also sent them out to three phone carriers — AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. However, Justin feels she is going way too far with this!
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly and People, Justin’s lawyer, Mitchell Schuster, sent a letter to the judge on Friday slamming her team for issuing subpoenas to several cell phone companies for documentation of calls or texts “belonging to each of the individual Wayfarer Parties” and “various non-party individuals.” Schuster noted Blake’s attorneys asked for “call logs, text logs, data logs and cell site location information.” All of this, the lawyer said, is “flagrantly overbroad.” The letter continues:
“It is hard to overstate how broad, invasive, and atypical these Subpoenas truly are. This is civil litigation, not a criminal prosecution, and the Lively Parties are not the FBI. Yet the Subpoenas seek not only the complete call and text history of each of the targets over a period of several years (no matter the sender, recipient or subject matter) but also, over the same period, real-time location information and data logs reflecting, among other things, web browsing history.”
Related: Justin Claps Back At WME Exec Saying He Dropped Him Out Of Loyalty To Blake & Ryan!
Schuster argued that demanding the records is “wildly disproportionate to the needs of the case and unnecessarily invades the privacy of untold numbers of third parties, including family, friends, business partners, and — quite literally — any other person with whom any of the targets have communicated with over a period of years.” He also stated that it “grossly” exceeds “the scope of permissible discovery.” Although Justin’s team is not against the use of third-party discovery tools by both sides, they want it done in a “legally permissible fashion.”
Schuster fears her team is “intimidating third parties into providing information about our clients (and various non-parties) far beyond what is appropriate (or even legal) in civil litigation, including spousal communications, medical information, attorney-client communications, and real-time location information, among other things,” adding:
“The Subpoenas constitute a flagrant abuse of the discovery process and, if allowed to stand, set a precedent that — once their bluster dissipates — we are confident the Lively Parties’ counsel will not be prepared to accept when it comes to the scope of discovery into their own clients’ private information and communications.”
What’s more? The attorney claimed the subpoenas are nothing more than a “media ploy” to get attention because they were “leaked alongside a lengthy and combative statement” from Blake’s lawyers. Damn. While Justin’s team alleged they “conferred” with Blake’s side about the subpoenas, they were “unable to resolve the dispute.” This is why Schuster wrote the letter! Now, he has asked the judge to weigh in on the “highly time-sensitive” matter since some “cellular providers have already indicated they intend to comply with the subpoenas.”
And, of course, Blake’s team had to clap back from there! A spokesperson for the Gossip Girl alum told People on Saturday :
“If they have so many receipts why are they so afraid to produce them. Mr. Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties have already admitted that Ms. Lively raised concerns multiple times. They have admitted that they created a plan in case she ‘made her grievances public,’ in which they planned to plant stories suggesting Ms. Lively was a ‘bully’ and ‘weaponizing feminism.’ They have admitted that they were able to ‘bury’ anyone.”
Did she not see all the receipts Justin dropped on the website? Safe to say he is not “afraid” of handing over proof! The spokesperson continued:
“They have admitted that they bragged and laughed at how negatively the narrative had shifted against Ms. Lively, and how successful they were at ‘confusing’ people. They have admitted that they said they ‘started to see a shift on social, due largely to [Jed Wallace, an independent contractor] and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative,’ yet they deny that they implemented their plan. Now they want to block the very discovery that would expose them. If they didn’t do it, they would have nothing to hide.”
As we previously reported, Blake was supposed to have an amended complaint submitted by Valentine’s Day. However, she asked for an extension in court this week. The actress got it, but only for four more days. No wonder why she is so pushy about the subpoenas! Blake’s team needs time to find more evidence to help her case — if there is any!
We shall see whether things go Blake or Justin’s way! Reactions, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below!
[Image via Phil Lewis/WENN, Access Hollywood/YouTube]
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