Blake Lively’s legal team says Justin Baldoni is ‘afraid to produce receipts’ after she filed subpoenas

Blake Lively’s legal team claimed that Justin Baldoni is ‘afraid to produce receipts’ after she sent subpoenas to cell carriers this week amid their ongoing lawsuit drama. 

In response, Baldoni’s lawyer Mitchell Schuster filed a letter on Friday to U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman and labeled the recent subpoenas as ‘flagrantly overboard,’ per People. 

The actor’s attorney further stated that the Gossip Girl alum, 37, and her husband Ryan Reynolds ‘are not the FBI.’ 

The legal battle began when Lively accused Justin — whom she worked with on It Ends With Us — of sexual assault and launching a smear campaign against her in December 2024. He responded by filing a $400 million lawsuit against Blake. 

In regards to the letter, a spokesperson for Lively referenced Justin’s other lawyer Bryan Freedman alleging they have ‘receipts’ that would back up claims that she was a ‘bully.’ 

‘If they have so many receipts why are they so afraid to produce them,’ they told People. 

Blake Lively’s, 37, legal team claimed that Justin Baldoni, 41, is ‘afraid to produce receipts’ after she sent subpoenas to cell carriers this week amid their ongoing lawsuit drama; seen in 2024 in London

In response, Baldoni’s lawyer Mitchell Schuster filed a letter on Friday to U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman and labeled the recent subpoenas as ‘flagrantly overboard,’ per People; seen in 2024 in NYC

The spokesperson also mentioned Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios and added, ‘Mr. Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties have already admitted that Ms. Lively raised concerns multiple times.’

‘They have admitted that they created a plan in case she “made her grievances public,” in which they planned to plant stories suggesting Ms. Lively was a “bully” and “weaponizing feminism.” They have admitted that they were able to “bury” anyone.’

‘They have admitted that they bragged and laughed at how negatively the narrative had shifted against Ms. Lively, and how successful they were at “confusing” people.’ 

Blake’s spokesperson continued, ‘They have admitted that they said they “started to see a shift on social, due largely to [Jed Wallace, an independent contractor] and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative,” yet they deny that they implemented their plan.’

‘Now they want to block the very discovery that would expose them. If they didn’t do it, they would have nothing to hide.’ 

In the letter filed by Baldoni’s attorney Mitchell Shuster on Friday, he slammed the subpoenas by Lively. 

‘It is hard to overstate how broad, invasive, and atypical these Subpoenas truly are. This is civil litigation, not a criminal prosecution, and the Lively Parties [Lively and Reynolds] are not the FBI.’ 

He added that the subpoenas — which were sent to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon — could disclose ‘the complete call and text history of each of the targets.’ 

‘If they have so many receipts why are they so afraid to produce them,’ they told People; seen above in It Ends With Us

‘It is hard to overstate how broad, invasive, and atypical these Subpoenas truly are. This is civil litigation, not a criminal prosecution, and the Lively Parties [Lively and Reynolds] are not the FBI,’ Baldoni’s lawyer said; seen in 2024 in NYC 

However, it could also reveal legally protected information as well as location data and web browser history. 

Other defendants were included in the subpoenas, including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, and also Wayfarer’s Steve Sarowitz and Jamey Heath. 

Schuster stated that the subpoenas are ‘wildly disproportionate to the needs of the case.’ 

‘And unnecessarily invades the privacy of untold numbers of third parties, including family, friends, business partners, and — quite literally — any other person with whom any of the targets have communicated with over a period of years.’ 

Baldoni’s lawyer further labeled the subpoenas as a ‘media ploy’ and asked the judge to look into the issue ‘at the soonest possible opportunity.’

This week, it was revealed that Blake sent subpoenas to cell carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon as she looks for more ‘receipts’ amid the ongoing legal battle. 

Her lawyers also sent subpoenas to two internet providers, Cloudflare and AOL, as well as to Jed Wallace, a crisis consultant accused of launching a ‘digital army’ against the actress on Baldoni’s behalf. 

Wallace has denied the allegations and recently filed a $7 million defamation suit against Lively.

‘Ms. Lively has initiated discovery that will expose the people, tactics, and methods that have worked to “destroy” and “bury” her reputation and family over the past year,’ her attorneys, Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb, shared with Deadline on Wednesday.

Baldoni’s lawyer further labeled the subpoenas as a ‘media ploy’ and asked the judge to look into the issue ‘at the soonest possible opportunity’; seen in December 2024 in NYC

‘We will now receive all of the “receipts” that, unsurprisingly, are nowhere to be found on Mr. Freedman’s website, and like Ms. Lively, those “receipts” will have their day in court,’ they added, in reference to Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, and the website thelawsuitinfo.com, outlining Baldoni’s version of events.

Speaking of well-known PR guru, Jed, Lively’s spokesperson stated, ‘We look forward to investigating more about Jed Wallace’s entire business model and what else he was doing to distract from the very real sexual harassment and retaliation claims made by Ms. Lively.’

‘We are delighted to be able to start discovery on it,’ the spokesperson added.

Her rep also noted that Wallace’s involvement was detailed in messages the team had already obtained, where Baldoni’s team allegedly gloated about how easily the public was swayed to dislike her. 

The New York Times published text messages Lively cited as evidence. Baldoni responded by claiming the published messages were incomplete and released what he alleged were the full exchanges in a lawsuit against the NYT in early January.

Further messages were included in a subsequent lawsuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds.

Earlier this month, the filmmaker published a website that his legal team alleged had all of the ‘receipts’ for his and Lively’s court battle.

Lively alleges that Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios hired Crisis PR chief Melissa Nathan to discredit any accusations she might make about his behavior on the set of It Ends With Us. 

This week, it was revealed that Blake sent subpoenas to cell carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon as she looks for more ‘receipts’ amid the ongoing legal battle; seen in 2024 in NYC 

Earlier this month, the filmmaker published a website that his legal team alleged had all of the ‘receipts’ for his and Lively’s court battle; seen in 2023 in NYC 

Her TAG firm allegedly then employed Wallace to run an online smear campaign against Lively, damaging her reputation and the launch of her new product line.

Nathan and publicist Jennifer Abel acknowledged planning a strategy for their client, but claim they never implemented it because public opinion turned against Lively organically.

The texts included in Lively’s original complaint appear to show the moment-to-moment breakdown of how Baldoni and his PR team discussed her.

His publicity team, according to a strategy document for Baldoni that Lively filed with her complaint, identified ‘several potential scenarios at play here which we should be prepared for, should [Lively] and her team make her grievances public.’

Baldoni — who served as director and starred as Ryle Kincaid, the partner of Lively’s character Lily Bloom in It Ends With Us — has refuted the claims of orchestrating a smear campaign through his lawyer.

‘It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to “fix” her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film,’ he said.

‘Interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.’

At the beginning of the month Baldoni launched his own website dedicated to defending himself against Lively’s sexual harassment allegations.

In an attempt to share his side of the story, the actor, who is seeking to offer transparency to the public amid his legal battle, shared a website containing his amended complaint and a timeline of relevant events related to the case.

The texts included in Lively’s original complaint appear to show the moment-to-moment breakdown of how Baldoni and his PR team discussed her

The decision to publish the site came after the star amended his $400 million suit accusing Lively of giving The New York Times advance access to her sexual harassment complaint.

His attorney told DailyMail.com that Baldoni’s amended his lawsuit due ‘to the overwhelming amount of new proof that has come to light.’

‘This fresh evidence corroborates what we knew all along, that due to purely egotistical reasons Ms. Lively and her entire team colluded for months to destroy reputations through a complex web of lies, false accusations and the manipulation of illicitly received communications,’ Freedman continued.

He concluded: ‘The ongoing public interest in this case online has ironically shed light on the undeniable facts pertaining to The New York Times and how heavily Ms. Lively and her representatives were not only deeply involved in the attempted take down and smear campaign of Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their teams but that they themselves initiated it.’

The list of Lively’s grievances against Baldoni is a long one, but the most damning of all is her claim that he sexually harassed her while filming It Ends With Us with unwanted kissing, talking about his sex life and trying to insert gratuitous raunchy scenes into the script.

After Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in January, he quickly filed a $400million countersuit against Blake, her husband Ryan and their publicist Leslie Sloane over claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.

Amongst the pages of documents, emails and text messages he recently shared on his website is an intriguing set of handwritten notes made by Baldoni during his meeting with the film’s intimacy coordinator which may well prove to be the key to the whole case.

His attorney told DailyMail.com that Baldoni’s amended his lawsuit due ‘to the overwhelming amount of new proof that has come to light’; seen in 2024 in L.A. 

Lively has painted a picture whereby there was no intimacy coordinator involved in the production until she demanded one; Baldoni introduced unwanted kissing in intimate scenes, and he spoke to her about his own sex life.

However, his timeline appears to show that there was in fact an intimacy coordinator engaged from the outset, who Lively declined to meet until filming began. 

This ultimately resulted in Baldoni, who was also the director, having to convey the intimacy coordinator’s notes to Lively himself.

Baldoni, Lively, and Reynolds are scheduled to go to trial in New York on March 29, 2026.