Blake Lively‘s team is calling out Justin Baldoni‘s team in a new statement over alleged auto-deleted messages.
The 41-year-old It Ends With Us star/director and his Wayfarer Studios and team of publicists reportedly used the Signal app to communicate as it auto-deletes messages.
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“Defendants have hid the ball at every turn in the discovery process, either failing to produce documents, or improperly cloaking them in the attorney-client privilege, forcing no less than twelve discovery-related motions to date against Defendants and their aligned third parties,” Blake‘s attorneys, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher, said, via Deadline.
The outlet reports that the statement is backed up by a similar filing this week from Justin‘s former PR team and another defendant in the case, Jonesworks LLC.
The claims say that Justin‘s team used the Signal app, voice memos and other software when discussing the alleged smear campaign against Blake, to avoid a potential future court order, and are said to have used it to be “either destroying or failing to preserve relevant communication in real time.”
“Evidence only recently produced reveals that, soon after Lively initiated this action, [Jennifer] Abel, along with [Bryan] Freedman and others, were actively directing social-media messaging intended to promote Baldoni and disparage Lively,” the legal team for Jonesworks LLC’s Stephanie Jones said in a memo.
Her chief attorney Kristin Tahler also shared in a statement to Deadline on Thursday (October 23), “Jen Abel conspired with Melissa Nathan, Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer to orchestrate a smear campaign and she did it in secret, outside of Joneworks and behind Stephanie Jones’ back. Conversations were moved to an auto-deleting platform and evidence was destroyed. There can be only one reason for this. They had something to hide and wanted to make sure it would never be discovered.”
Blake‘s team adds in their up-to-date memorandum, “immediately that the dust has settled, and fact discovery and depositions have closed, two things are clear: (1) despite Defendants’ clumsy efforts to cover their tracks, there is substantial evidence that the retaliatory campaign was, in fact, implemented as planned, and (2) Defendants flouted this Court’s orders, and destroyed and/or failed to preserve or produce additional material and highly relevant evidence, the absence of which they intend to try to unjustly exploit in their favor.”
Earlier this month, Blake‘s team banger back at claims of extortion from Justin‘s former agent.
The It Ends With Us case is reportedly looking to head to court for a trial in New York City in March 2026.
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