Justin Baldoni Calls Out Blake Lively for ‘Super Shady’ Legal Tactic (Report)

Months before it all blew up between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, her legal team filed a lawsuit to get their hands on damaging texts in their case against the “It Ends with Us” director.

To keep it on the down-low, Lively’s team filed it under a plaintiff no one would recognize, “Vanzan,” in court papers obtained "Extra."

The docs, from September 27, claimed, “This action arises out of an ongoing campaign to damage Plaintiff’s business and Plaintiff’s reputation... Defendants have certain contractual and confidentiality obligations and obligations of good faith and loyalty to Plaintiff regarding Plaintiff’s business and reputation, by way of oral promises and/or written agreements.”

According to Deadline, Justin’s PR team was subpoenaed in October. The subpoena “concerns, refers, relates and applies to any and all electronic records, data, documents, and communications in Your possession, custody or control collected from a cellular telephone containing the requested information.”

After successfully obtaining texts, the lawsuit was dropped, only for Blake to then file the now infamous sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni. 

Justin’s team is blasting the tactic, calling it “super shady” and “a flagrant abuse of process.”

Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman told the outlet, “Ms. Lively’s and Mr. Reynolds’ company Vanzan had nothing to do with this case and they knew it. This sham lawsuit was designed to obtain subpoena power without oversight or scrutiny, and in doing so denied my clients the ability to contest the propriety, nature and scope of the subpoena.”

Along with saying that “there is nothing normal about this,” Freedman argued, “A party with no connection to these proceedings asserting a breach of contract against another party they claim not to be able to identify does not qualify. This was done in bad faith and constitutes a flagrant abuse of process.”

Lively’s legal team denies any wrongdoing. Her lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb said, “There is nothing untoward here — just conscientious and thorough investigation. The Lively parties acted upon reliable information, and employed common tools such as Doe lawsuits and civil subpoenas that are entirely lawful and appropriate for pursuing claims and uncovering the identity of unknown perpetrators of unlawful activities.”

They emphasized, “This lawsuit unearthed the Wayfarer Parties’ documented plan – in their own words, in their own text messages — to ‘destroy’ Blake Lively, a plan which they executed without transparency, disclosure, or notice to Ms. Lively or the public, instead acting in a way they thought would be ‘untraceable’.  We have absolutely nothing to hide – Ms. Lively voluntarily disclosed the subpoena in her first filing knowing that it would ultimately be produced to the Wayfarer Parties in discovery, and that is precisely what will happen as Ms. Lively’s claims move forward in the proper litigation process.”

In December, text messages between Baldoni and his PR team were included in a piece published by The New York Times entitled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” about Blake’s claims she was the victim of a smear campaign by Baldoni’s team.

Baldoni then filed a $250M lawsuit against NYT.

Blake then sued Justin and his PR team for sexual harassment and “unconscionable” retaliation. 

Baldoni fired off another lawsuit, suing Blake, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and publicist Leslie Sloane for $400 million.