Judge Throws Out Taylor Swift Bullying Claims From Lively-Baldoni Case

The Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively legal battle continues to gets uglier and uglier… and Taylor Swift is super involved now. (Even though her only contribution to the film was allowing for the use of her song, “My Tears Ricochet.”) In December 2024, Blake accused Justin, her It Ends With Us costar and director, of sexual harassment and retaliation. He then countersued for defamation and has since alleged that Blake used Taylor to intimidate him into making script changes. On May 9, the “Anti-Hero” singer was subpoenaed by Justin’s legal team as part of the countersuit.

After that news came out, Taylor’s rep blasted the subpoena in a statement: “Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history.” The spokesperson added that the subpoena is “designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”

When Blake and Taylor’s legal teams pushed back against the subpoena, Justin’s team shared a letter with the judge about why it’s necessary for the case. His attorneys alleged that Blake threatened Taylor to publicly support her in the legal battle. Did Blake Lively actually threaten to release personal Taylor Swift texts if Taylor didn’t support her? Her team has denied the allegations, calling them “completely untethered from reality,” and a judge has now removed the letter from the case. Here are all the details!

Did Blake Lively Blackmail Taylor Swift To Get Her Public Support? Justin Baldoni’s Lawyers’ Claims Explained

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In a letter to the judge, Justin’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, claimed a “source who is highly likely to have reliable information” informed him that Blake asked Taylor to delete some texts. Bryan also alleged that Blake’s lawyer contacted Taylor’s attorney, demanding that “Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively” and “intimating that if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.” That’s a pretty wild accusation! (I don’t think sharing her personal texts with Taylor would do much good for Blake’s PR issues.)

Justin’s lawyer claimed that Taylor’s lawyer replied and “addressed these inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats.” He explained, “It is those communications that the Wayfarer Parties seek to obtain” to see if there’s evidence of “an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.”

The day after Justin’s team issued their legal letter, U.S. district judge Lewis J. Liman granted Blake’s request to have it removed from the case. “The sole purpose of the Letter is to ‘promote public scandal’ by advancing inflammatory accusations, on information and belief, against Lively and her counsel,” he said. “It transparently invites a press uproar by suggesting that Lively and her counsel attempted to ‘extort’ a well-known celebrity.” The judge warned Justin’s team: “Future misuse of the court’s docket may be met with sanctions.”

Blake Lively’s Response To Allegations About Threatening Taylor Swift

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Blake’s attorney Mike Gottlieb shared the following response statement with People: “This is categorically false. We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality. This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers, who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process. We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here.”

I’m sure we’ll get more updates about this super complicated legal battle soon…