In the latest development of the highly publicised dispute between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, Lively’s legal team is seeking the phone records of Baldoni and his associates.
This move aims to allegedly uncover evidence of a smear campaign against Lively, which she claims was orchestrated by Baldoni.
Lively, 37, filed a complaint in December, accusing Baldoni, 41, and others of sexual harassment and launching a retaliatory public smear campaign.
In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit in January against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane’s public relations agency, alleging defamation and civil extortion.
The case, Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al., is scheduled to go to trial on March 9, 2026.
Lively filed subpoenas to “expose the people, tactics, and methods that have worked to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ her reputation and family over the past year,” her lawyers, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson said in a statement to People magazine on Wednesday, February 12.
Freedman responded to the subpoenas by telling the outlet that while they are a “normal part of the litigation process,” Lively’s attorneys are requesting something “extraordinary.”
“They are asking for every single call, text, data log, and even real-time location information for the past 2.5 years, regardless of the sender, recipient, or subject matter,” Freedman’s statement read.
“This massive fishing expedition demonstrates that they are desperately seeking any factual basis for their provably false claims. They will find none.”
To “expose the full web of individuals who were involved in the smear campaign against” Lively, a representative for the actress said, subpoenas were sent to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile for phone records belonging to Baldoni, publicist Jennifer Abel, and crisis management specialist Melissa Nathan.
Her spokesperson claims the records could “provide critical and irrefutable evidence not only about who, but also about when, where, and how their retaliation plan came together and operated.”
The Gossip Girl alum’s spokesperson said her team are looking “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.”
