Justin Baldoni. Sony Pictures Releasing /Courtesy Everett Collection
Justin Baldoni’s lawyers slammed Blake Lively’s legal team as they are seeking phone records amid their ongoing legal drama.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, a letter was sent to the judge on Friday, February 14, by Mitchell Schuster, who represents Baldoni, 41, and his production company Wayfarer Studios.
In the paperwork, Schuster slammed Lively’s legal team for issuing subpoenas to multiple cell phone companies seeking documentation of calls or text messages “belonging to each of the individual Wayfarer Parties” and “various non-party individuals.” Schuster claimed that Lively’s lawyers requested “call logs, text logs, data logs and cell site location information.”
“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 are not the FBI,” the letter read. “Yet the Subpoenas seek not only the complete call and text history of each of the targets over a period of several years (no matter the sender, recipient or subject matter) but also, over the same period, real-time location information and data logs reflecting, among other things, web browsing history.”
Blake Lively is seeking Justin Baldoni’s phone records to uncover further evidence of his alleged smear campaign against her. Lively’s lawyers sent subpoenas to AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, requesting records for Baldoni, 41, as well as film producer Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, the cofounder of Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios, Us Weekly confirms. The […]
Schuster argued that the move “grossly” exceeds “the scope of permissible discovery.” While Baldoni’s team does not object to the use of third-party discovery tools by both sides, they are advocating that it is done so in a “legally permissible fashion.”
“The Wayfarer Parties are deeply concerned that the Lively Parties are intimidating third parties into providing information about our clients (and various non-parties) far beyond what is appropriate (or even legal) in civil litigation, including spousal communications, medical information, attorney-client communications, and real-time location information, among other things,” Schuster wrote. “The Subpoenas constitute a flagrant abuse of the discovery process and, if allowed to stand, set a precedent that — once their bluster dissipates — we are confident the Lively Parties’ counsel will not be prepared to accept when it comes to the scope of discovery into their own clients’ private information and communications.”
Blake Lively. NDZ/Star Max/GC Images
Baldoni’s legal team claimed that they “conferred” with Lively’s side over the subpoenas but the parties were “unable to resolve the dispute.” Schuster asked the judge to weigh in on the “highly time-sensitive” matter as some “cellular providers have already indicated they intend to comply with the subpoenas.”
Lively, 37, and Baldoni’s legal battle kicked off after the pair starred in the 2024 film It Ends With Us. In December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment, emotional distress and more. Baldoni denied the allegations and filed a defamation suit for $400 million against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist Leslie Sloane.
Us confirmed on Friday that Lively’s team had subpoenaed the phone records of Baldoni, film producer Jamey Heath and Wayfarer Studios’ Steve Sarowitz in an attempt to find evidence of a smear campaign against the actress.
The war of words between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively is showing no sign of stopping. Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman issued a fiery response to Lively’s claims that he is trying to taint the jury pool in their upcoming trial, notably by leaking information in an attempt to disprove the actress’ side of the story. […]
“Phone records belonging to all of the individual defendants will expose the full web of individuals who were involved in the smear campaign against Ms. Lively,” a representative for Lively said in a statement to Us. “Such records will provide critical and irrefutable evidence not only about who, but also about when, where, and how their retaliation plan came together and operated.”
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told Us in a response that “subpoenas are an ordinary part of the litigation.”
“What is extraordinary is what the Lively Parties are seeking. 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,” he continued in a statement. “This massive fishing expedition demonstrates that they are desperately seeking any factual basis for their provably false claims. They will find none.”
