Justin Baldoni’s lawyer has issued a statement regarding the ‘leaked’ texts in Blake Lively’s lawsuit.
Days after Lively, 37, sued her It Ends With Us costar and director for sexual harassment, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman spoke out about her filing.
In her bombshell lawsuit, the actress alleged that Baldoni launched a smear campaign with the intention of “destroying” her reputation and provided messages between him and his team to support that claim.
Baldoni’s lawyer said the text messages were taken out of “critical context.”
He also claims the messages were “leaked,” contradicting reports that Lively obtained them through a subpoena.
And on the topic of Baldoni’s crisis management team, The Agency Group PR, which he hired during the It Ends With Us press tour drama, Freedman defended their hypothetical “scenario planning” to tarnish Lively’s reputation.
Justin Baldoni’s lawyer has issued a statement claiming that the ‘leaked’ text messages in Blake Lively’s lawsuit were taken out of ‘critical context’; Baldoni proposed in LA in December
Days after Lively, 37, sued her It Ends With Us costar and director for sexual harassment, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman also claimed the messages were “leaked,” contradicting the report that Lively obtained them through a subpoena ; Vividly seen in It Ends With Us film still
He suggested that it was not Baldoni’s fault, but rather Lively’s own behavior that caused the downfall of her reputation.
The lawyer said this in a statement obtained from We weekly: ‘TAG PR operated as any other crisis management firm would operate if hired by a client threatened by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources.
“The standard scenario planning that TAG PR established proved unnecessary as the public found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful and responded organically to what the media themselves picked up,” he continued.
“It’s ironic that the New York Times, in its attempt to ‘uncover’ an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that contained no critical context – exactly the same tactics they use the execution company,” Freedman concluded.
Lively filed the lawsuit against her former co-star on Friday, December 20 – just one day before The New York Times published the court documents.
Included in the lengthy filing were evidence pointing to “thousands of pages of text messages and emails” that Lively allegedly obtained through a subpoena.
In response to Freeman’s statement and his latest claim that the messages were “leaked,” Lively’s legal team also shared a statement with the outlet claiming that the messages in Lively’s file were obtained through a subpoena.
“The summons issued and referenced in the complaint was served on Jonesworks LLC,” the statement said.
In her bombshell lawsuit, the actress alleged that Baldoni launched a smear campaign intended to “destroy” her reputation and sent messages between him and his team to support that claim; pictured together in It Ends With Us
Freedman defended Baldoni’s crisis management team, The Agency Group PR, for their hypothetical “scenario planning” that would tarnish Lively’s reputation. He claimed that Lively’s own behavior caused the downfall of her reputation; pictured in August in London
“The internal documents referred to in the complaint were produced subject to that subpoena. We expect that further details about the subpoena process will be announced during discovery.”
One of the alleged text messages in the filing was from Baldoni’s publicist — who represents him and his production company Wayfarer Studios — to a crisis management expert.
In the message, Baldoni’s publicist said he “wants to feel like she can be buried.”
There was also an expose claiming Baldoni “set the narrative for the social media campaign” to smear Lively’s reputation.
In an alleged text exchange, he shared a screenshot of a social media post that appeared to be about Hailey Bieber and accused her of “bullying women.”
Baldoni wrote: ‘This is what we would need.’
The court documents from Lively’s files also alleged that Baldoni’s team had a plan that went “well beyond standard crisis PR” and that they proposed implementing “astroturfing” — a concept defined as “the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media’. , etc., which appear to come from ordinary members of the public, but in reality come from a particular company or political group.”
Taylor Swift, a close friend of Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, was also reportedly mentioned in a “scenario planning” document from Baldoni’s team.
Baldoni’s attorney said his PR team “operated as any other crisis management firm would operate if hired by a client threatened by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources”; Baldoni is pictured in New York in August
In addition to the alleged smear campaign, Lively also alleged that Baldoni created a hostile work environment and sexually harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us. Baldoni has denied all allegations; depicted in It Ends with Us
One purported message read: “Our team can also investigate stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people like Taylor Swift have been accused of using these tactics to ‘bully’ to get what they want.”
In addition to the alleged smear campaign, Lively also alleged that Baldoni created a hostile work environment and sexually harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us.
After experiencing his alleged inappropriate behavior, she distanced herself from him during their frosty press tour.
As fans began to notice the tension, Baldoni reportedly became “concerned” that his behavior on set would be exposed and hired his crisis management team to begin “scenario planning.”
Baldoni has denied all allegations.
After Lively sued him, his attorney released a statement calling her accusations “completely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious.” Freedman also claimed that she filed just to “correct her negative reputation.”
Lively also released a statement to The New York Times about her lawsuit, saying, “I hope my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and helps protect others that may be targeted. ‘