Justin Baldoni’s Attorney Plans to Sue Blake Lively After ‘NYT’ Lawsuit

Justin Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman “absolutely” plans to sue Blake Lively on behalf of his client.

Freedman was asked by NBC News in a Thursday, January 2 interview whether he was planning to sue Lively, 37, on behalf of the It Ends With Us director. Freedman responded, “Absolutely … yes.”

“We plan to release every single text message between the two of them,” Freedman told the outlet. “We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”

It comes after Baldoni, 40, filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times on Tuesday, December 31. The actor and director is suing for libel and false light invasion of privacy following The New York Times’ reporting on costar Lively after she sued him for sexual harassment.

Baldoni was one of 10 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which also includes publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel as well as It Ends With Us producers James Heath and Steve Saraowitz, who began legal proceedings against the media outlet.

The same day Baldoni sued The New York Times, Lively officially filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, Nathan and Abel, along with Wayfarer Studios in the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages. The claims parallel those made in Lively’s complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department last week.

Lively spoke out about her legal action via a Saturday, December 21 statement to Us Weekly.

“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,” she said.

A New York Times spokesperson told Us Weekly in a statement on Tuesday, December 31 that the outlet is planning to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement read. “Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. Those texts and emails were also the crux of a discrimination claim filed in California by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni and his associates.”

The statement continued, “To address some inaccuracies in the lawsuit, when seeking comments from Mr. Baldoni and others who would be mentioned in the article, The Times shared the information that we intended to publish, including references to specific text messages and documents, asked them to identify any inaccuracies, provide additional context and speak with our team. Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer and the other subjects chose not to have any conversations with The Times or address any of the specific text messages or documents and instead emailed a joint response, which was published in full. (Also, they sent their response to The Times at 11:16 p.m. ET Dec 20th, not at 2:16 a.m. ET Dec 21st as the complaint says.)”

In response to Baldoni filing the lawsuit, Lively’s attorney told Us on Tuesday, December 31 that the lawsuit was based on an “obviously false premise.”

“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today,” the statement read. “This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice “not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,” and that “litigation was never her ultimate goal.”  As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false.  While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”

Freedman also shared a statement with Us Weekly, vowing to “take down” The New York Times for its “vicious smear campaign.”

“In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative,” he said via a statement to Us on Tuesday, December 31. “In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public. The irony is rich.”

He continued: “Make no mistake however, as we all unite to take down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth – and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began.”