A easy favor.
Blake Vigorous’s lead legal professional, Mike Gottlieb, allegedly threatened to launch Taylor Swift’s personal textual content messages if the singer didn’t publicly assist the star in her “It Ends With Us” authorized battle.
Justin Baldoni’s authorized workforce laid naked the bombshell allegations in a stunning new court docket submitting obtained by The Put up; nevertheless, Gottlieb shot down the accusations, calling them “categorically false.”
Final week, Swift was dragged into Vigorous’s ongoing feud with Baldoni when the famous person singer was subpoenaed as a witness within the authorized battle.
In a letter to the choose on Wednesday, Baldoni’s attorneys defined why they need to speak to Swift, notably, after Vigorous and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, tried to quash the subpoena.
“The Lively Defendants’ insistence that the Subpoena seeks irrelevant information is wrong,” Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s legal professional, wrote within the newest authorized doc.
Freedman additionally claimed that he acquired a tip from an nameless supply who alleged that Vigorous “requested that Taylor Swift delete their text messages,” per the submitting.
Freedman argued that the supply “is highly likely to have reliable information,” which he believes may assist the case.
Within the authorized letter, Freedman additionally claimed that Vigorous’s lawyer allegedly contacted an legal professional at Venable, the agency that represents the “Bad Blood” singer, “and demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively,” whereas additionally “intimating that if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.”
Based on Freedman, through the submitting, he was instructed that considered one of Swift’s representatives “addressed these inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats” in a minimum of one written communication with Gottlieb.
“It is those communications that the Wayfarer Parties seek to obtain,” the letter said, including that alleged communication could possibly be potential proof of “an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.”
However Vigorous’s legal professional denied Freedman’s allegations in a press release to The Put up.
“This is categorically false. We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality,” Gottlieb stated.
“This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers, who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process. We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here.”
Vigorous’s authorized workforce filed a movement to strike Freedman’s letter on Wednesday afternoon, claiming the submitting’s sole goal was to “launder scandalous and defamatory allegations about Ms. Lively and opposing counsel into the press.”
“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,” one of many actress’ attorneys, Esra A. Hudson, fired off within the request obtained by The Put up.
“It should be unnecessary to respond to anonymously sourced, baseless, allegations recklessly
leveled without any supporting evidence. It is worth stating for the record, however, that each of the
allegations in the Freedman Letter is unequivocally and demonstrably false,” the submitting learn.
“It does not seek any form of relief, is irrelevant to any motion currently pending before the Court, and serves no legitimate purpose. It is not useful to the Court in any respect.”
The Put up reached out Freedman and Swift’s rep for remark however didn’t instantly hear again.
Swift, who’s the godmother of Vigorous and Reynolds’ three daughters, was introduced up a number of instances in Baldoni’s countersuit, by which he claimed the worldwide pop diva and Reynolds had been current for a pivotal assembly between him and Vigorous that passed off on the couple’s New York penthouse.
In his countersuit, Baldoni additionally claimed that Vigorous known as herself Khaleesi from “Game of Thrones” and referred to Reynolds and Swift as “my dragons” in an alleged textual content trade.
The Grammy winner’s workforce fired off a press release shortly after the information of her subpoena made headlines.
“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, she did not even see ‘It Ends With Us’ until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history,” a Swift consultant instructed The Put up.
Vigorous kicked off the authorized battle when she sued Baldoni in December, claiming he sexually harassed her on the set of “It Ends With Us.”
Baldoni, who served as director and the love curiosity of Vigorous’s character within the movie, countersued the actress and her husband for $400 million, accusing the couple of defamation, civil extortion, false gentle invasion of privateness, and extra.
Every get together has denied the opposite’s allegations.
Vigorous and Baldoni’s trial is ready for March 2026.
