Blake Lively’s Lawyers File Motion Seeking Sanctions Against Justin Baldoni’s Team

There are new developments in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s “It Ends with Us” legal battle.

On Monday, Blake’s lawyers filed a motion seeking sanctions against Justin Baldoni’s team.

In court docs obtained by “Extra,” the attorneys state, “Defendant Blake Lively brings this Motion for Sanctions (‘Motion’), pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 (‘Rule 11’), requesting the Court to impose monetary sanctions against Plaintiffs Steve Sarowitz, Jamey Heath, Melissa Nathan, Jennifer Abel, and It Ends With Us Movie LLC (‘IEWU LLC,’ together with Sarowitz, Heath, Nathan, and Abel, the ‘Rule 11 Plaintiffs’), their attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mitchell Schuster, and their attorneys’ respective law firms,

Liner Freedman Taitelman + Cooley LLP (‘Liner Freedman’) and Meister Seelig & Fein PLLC (‘Meister Seelig,’ together with Mr. Freedman, Mr. Schuster, and Liner Freedman, ‘Counsel’ or ‘Plaintiffs’ Counsel’).”

The papers go on to say that claims “that have no reasonable basis in law or fact” were brought against Lively for an “improper purpose,” adding, “Ms. Lively seeks sanctions in the amount of attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in defending against the Rule 11 Plaintiffs’ baseless claims.”

The docs also call out Baldoni’s team for, “Counsel’s ghoulish taunt that Ms. Lively should testify about her degrading experience of sexual harassment at Madison Square Garden before 20,000 spectators and streamed for the world.”

Seeming to reference letters and an affidavit Freedman filed about Lively and Taylor Swift last week, the court docs note “two letters and an affidavit [were] so inflammatory and improper that they were stricken from the record."

In a statement, Lively’s lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb told “Extra” of Bryan Freedman, “If you want to know why Justin Baldoni’s lawyer pulled his latest inflammatory and defamatory media stunt, it might be because he knew that both he and his clients were about to be hit with sanctions motions based on his reckless decision to file multiple frivolous claims in federal court.  You can’t file lawsuits in federal court that have no basis in law or fact to create a harassing media narrative, or in other words, their strategy from day one. The Baldoni legal team received notice of their sanctionable behavior weeks ago, but doubled down rather than withdrawing their frivolous and harassing claims. Now they’ll face the consequences of treating federal court like a media playground.”

Baldoni’s team has not publicly commented on the demand for sanctions.

In December, Lively filed a legal complaint with the California Civil Rights Department claiming Baldoni sexually harassed her on set. She also accused him of a smear campaign in a New York Times article. In return, he sued The New York Times, which denied any wrongdoing.