Blake Lively’s legal team is strongly denying accusations that they tried to blackmail Taylor Swift. The claims, made by attorney Bryan Freedman on behalf of actor Justin Baldoni, allege that a member of Lively’s legal team attempted to pressure Swift into releasing a public statement of support for Lively.
According to Freedman’s letter filed in court on Wednesday, Michael Gottlieb of Willkie Farr, who represents Lively, allegedly contacted a lawyer for Swift. Freedman claims Gottlieb demanded Swift issue a supportive statement for Lively, suggesting that if Swift refused, personal text messages involving Lively would be made public.
The accusation comes from a single unnamed source, which Freedman describes as “highly likely to have reliable information.” No additional evidence or corroborating sources were provided in the court filing.
Lively’s Lawyers Call Accusation “Categorically False”
Gottlieb responded to the claims in a statement to Variety, calling them “categorically false” and “cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources.” He criticized Freedman’s legal team for making accusations without evidence, stating they “love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process.”
He added that motions would soon be filed to hold Freedman’s team accountable for what he called misconduct.
Lively’s Team Asks Court to Strike Accusations from Record
Following Freedman’s filing, Lively’s legal team submitted a letter to Judge Lewis J. Liman. The letter, written by lawyer Esra Hudson, requested that Freedman’s accusations be struck from the court record.
Hudson wrote, “That letter, which was not filed with any evidentiary support of any kind, much less anything under oath, falsely accuses Ms. Lively, and her counsel, of engaging in ‘witness tampering and evidence spoliation’ based on an undisclosed anonymous source.”
She further argued that responding to such baseless, anonymously sourced claims should not be necessary. However, she stated for the record that all allegations in Freedman’s letter are “unequivocally and demonstrably false.”
Hudson also pointed out that Freedman’s letter was improper as it sought no legal relief, was unrelated to any pending motion, and served no legitimate purpose for the court.
Background of the Legal Dispute
The dispute is part of a larger legal battle involving Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit, filed in January. On May 9, Swift’s lawyers at Venable LLP filed a motion to quash a subpoena seeking documents related to the case.
The lawsuit included text messages between Lively and Baldoni. In these messages, Lively allegedly referred to Swift as “one of her dragons.” After news of the subpoena surfaced, a representative for Swift denied her involvement in Lively and Baldoni’s film, It Ends with Us, which is at the center of the lawsuit.
Swift’s spokesperson clarified, “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.”
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