Lively’s attorneys accuse Baldoni’s camp of exploiting the court system and fabricating claims involving Swift in an effort to defame the actress ahead of their upcoming trial.
Blake Lively’s legal team is forcefully pushing back against sensational claims made by Justin Baldoni’s attorneys alleging that the actress tried to manipulate pop icon Taylor Swift into publicly supporting her in an escalating legal battle.
In a court letter filed Wednesday, May 14, to U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman, Lively’s lawyers asked that a previous letter from Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, be struck from the record. The disputed letter accused Lively of threatening to leak private text messages with Swift if the singer declined to issue a public statement in her defense.
“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,” Lively’s attorneys wrote.
They went on to describe the allegation as “unequivocally and demonstrably false,” accusing Baldoni’s legal team of “laundering scandalous and defamatory allegations” through the press by misusing the court’s docket.
The Taylor Swift Subpoena
The situation drew even more public attention after it was revealed that Swift had been served with a subpoena in the ongoing legal proceedings. Both Lively’s and Swift’s legal teams moved swiftly to quash the subpoena, asserting that Swift has no relevant connection to the case.
A spokesperson for the singer also issued a firm rebuttal:
“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, and she did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release. She was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history.”
Despite the lack of evidence, Baldoni’s attorney maintains that the subpoena is justified to obtain potential communications between Lively and Swift. Freedman’s letter cited an unnamed “highly reliable source” who allegedly claimed that Lively asked Swift to delete their texts and that Lively’s lawyer, Mark Gottlieb, pressured Swift’s legal team for a public statement — threatening to release private content otherwise.
Lively’s team called the claims an “abuse of the legal process” and vowed to file motions seeking accountability for what they described as misconduct from Baldoni’s attorneys.
Behind the Legal Feud
The legal saga began in December 2024, when Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accusing Baldoni — her It Ends With Us director and co-star — of sexual harassment and orchestrating a retaliatory smear campaign against her.
In January 2025, Baldoni countersued, alleging defamation and extortion by Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicity team.
In that filing, Baldoni’s lawyers bizarrely alleged that a meeting took place at the Reynolds-Lively penthouse, where Swift praised a script rewrite by Lively. According to the claim, Baldoni interpreted Swift’s praise as subtle pressure to comply. They also cited a text message where Lively reportedly likened herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi and referred to Swift and Reynolds as her “dragons.”
As both sides gear up for trial, which is set for March 2026, the inclusion of Swift — a global megastar with no direct ties to the case — has added an explosive new layer to the high-profile Hollywood dispute.
While Swift’s representatives continue to maintain her neutrality and distance from the lawsuit, the public nature of the filings — and the deliberate references to her — have reignited debate over how celebrity influence is wielded and weaponized in the court of law and public opinion.
