Blake Lively Seeks Justin Baldoni’s Phone Records in Search for More Evidence of Smear Campaign
Blake Lively’s lawyers sent a subpoena on Wednesday for Justin Baldoni’s phone records, as they seek to buttress their allegation that he launched a smear campaign against her.
Lively is suing her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star, alleging that he and his publicists and operatives trashed her online in retaliation for her complaints of sexual harassment on set.
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Lively’s lawyers already have voluminous text messages from the phone of Jennifer Abel, one of Baldoni’s publicists. Those messages include discussion of trying to “bury” and “destroy” Lively, but may not tell the full story of how such an effort could have been carried out.
Lively’s attorneys sent subpoenas to three phone carriers — AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile — seeking records pertaining to Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath and billionaire Wayfarer Studios co-founder Steve Sarowitz. The subpoenas also seek the phone records of Abel and publicist Melissa Nathan.
“Phone records belonging to all of the individual defendants will expose the full web of individuals who were involved in the smear campaign against Ms. Lively,” said a Lively spokesperson in a statement. “Such records will provide critical and irrefutable evidence not only about who, but also about when, where, and how their retaliation plan came together and operated.”
Lively’s lawyers also sent subpoenas to two internet providers, Cloudflare and AOL, as well as to Jed Wallace, a crisis consultant who is accused of launching a “digital army” against Lively on Baldoni’s behalf. (Wallace denies having anything to do with it and has sued Lively for defamation.)
“Ms. Lively has initiated discovery that will expose the people, tactics and methods that have worked to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ her reputation and family over the past year,” said her attorneys, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, in a statement.
Lively’s spokesperson noted that Wallace’s involvement was detailed in the messages already obtained by her team. In one such message, Wallace was said to be succeeding in his efforts to “shift the narrative.”
“We look forward to investigating more about Jed Wallace’s entire business model and what else he was doing to distract from the very real sexual harassment and retaliation claims made by Ms. Lively,” the spokesperson said. “We are delighted to be able to start discovery on it.”
Baldoni’s camp did not immediately respond to comment on the latest development.
The phone records could show the metadata of phone calls and text messages, showing who was talking to whom and when, if not the actual content of the messages. Both sides will also presumably seek to obtain communications records directly from each other during the litigation.
Lively’s team was initially due to file an amended complaint on Friday. Earlier this week, her team asked for an extension to March 5, noting the need to respond to extensive new allegations.
Baldoni’s team did not object to the request, but Judge Lewis J. Liman nevertheless refused to grant it, allowing Lively’s attorneys only an extra four days. The amended complaint is now due on Tuesday.
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