Justin Baldoni‘s lawyer just ripped into his ex-publicist Stephanie Jones and her legal team!
Amid his battle with Blake Lively, Justin has also accused his former publicist at Jonesworks of maliciously leaking text messages to his rival, which would go on to be pivotal evidence in her smear campaign claims against him.
She has maintained that she was simply following the orders of a subpoena — one that was super mysterious until recently when it was unearthed to be from a company called Vanzan, which Blake owns. Basically, the actress filed a super anonymous suit against several Does, which helped her gain access to the texts. She then ended that suit and launched her complaints against the It Ends With Us director.
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On Thursday, Stephanie’s lawyers Maaren Shah and Kristin Tahler appeared on Extra, where they claimed their client’s former colleagues were scheming against her and that Justin and others breached important contracts. Kristin said:
“She’s here because there were real contractual breaches. There was a contractual breach by her former employee Jennifer Abel. But there are also contractual breaches by Wayfarer and by Justin Baldoni. They had a contract with Jonesworks. They breached that contract.”
Along with alleging that Justin owes their client a ton of money, the attorney insisted that Blake’s Doe subpoena was “fully appropriate to use.” See their full interview (below):
Well, Justin’s team saw that… and they have THOUGHTS!
The Baldoni crew hit back on Thursday by filing an amended set of counterclaims against the PR expert, with Bryan Freedman absolutely blasting Stephanie in a scathing statement to TMZ:
“In light of new evidence being uncovered almost daily, it has become imperative to amend our counterclaims against Stephanie Jones and Jonesworks. We are not surprised at all that Ms. Jones would instruct her legal team to go on record and mischaracterize the circumstances surrounding the sham ‘subpoena’ and Vanzan lawsuit, so impressively uncovered by the passionate group of online sleuths.”
He continued:
“A cursory reading of the ‘Van-sham’ lawsuit makes clear that the Lively Parties have been caught engaging in their own smear campaign, intentionally circumventing the normal procedures for clearly improper purposes by creating a farcical complaint with an unrelated plaintiff and no named defendants, ensuring that no one would know about or object to their attempt to obtain information they were not entitled to.”
He also blasted the Vanzan suit, calling it an “insidious scheme,” saying:
“To suggest — as Vanzan (Lively and [Ryan] Reynolds) do in their secret ‘complaint’ — that they are unaware of the identities of their own employees and contractual counterparties is a complete joke. We are just starting to scratch the surface of a much broader and more insidious scheme. To be clear, Jones and Jonesworks are equally implicated in this misconduct. We reiterate once again that there is not and has never been a smear campaign, except for the one being waged by the Lively Parties and Ms. Jones in collaboration with the New York Times.”
Freedman concluded:
“We will continue the fight to expose and hold accountable the wrongdoers and uncover the truth.”
Damn.
Maaren, however, had an equally heated clapback! The attorney told the outlet:
“This case will be decided on the mountain of evidence that demonstrates Wayfarer Studios and Ms. Abel deliberately breached their contracts with Jonesworks, which the defendants have conspicuously failed to rebut.”
The lawyer blasted the Jane the Virgin alum’s “weak” case, dishing:
“The defendants’ weak attempt to assemble their own case against Ms. Jones amounts to nothing more than a few debunked conspiracy theories and media gimmicks that have no basis in fact or evidence. The indisputable fact remains: the defendants have yet to provide any substantive defense to Ms. Jones’s case. Everything else is just distraction and noise.”
Kristin also shared her two cents while referencing the new filing:
“Reversing course, dropping previously touted claims, presenting zero new evidence, and putting out the world’s longest and most confusing statement – what a desperate ploy by a team who tonight all but admits they’re in trouble. Behind their empty gusto you’ll find not even an attempt to defend the misdeeds laid bare by the evidence. Quite telling.”
Damn. Nobody is giving up the fight!
Thoughts??
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