Justin Baldoni & Blake Lively
Letter Alleging Blake Strongarmed Taylor Swift Struck From Record
Published
The letter introduced by Justin Baldoni‘s team claiming Blake Lively tried to force a statement of public support out of Taylor Swift has been struck from the official record … with a judge claiming it’s not relevant to the current case.
Judge Lewis Liman struck the letter from the official record Thursday … ruling the letter doesn’t actually ask the court to do anything and it’s not important to the specific issues before the court.
In fact, the judge explains, it only serves to “‘promote public scandal’ by advancing inflammatory accusations, on information and belief, against Lively and her counsel.”
Judge Liman adds the letter invites more media attention by suggesting Lively or her team tried to “extort” a well-known celeb.
While this may seem like a harsh repudiation of Baldoni’s side, a source close to the Baldoni camp tells us … the judge is merely saying he doesn’t want letters that he believes he doesn’t need and which don’t ask him to do anything. However, we’re told Baldoni’s lawyers can continue to seek discovery and other information on those topics.
As you know … Baldoni’s team filed a document yesterday claiming they had it on good authority that Lively threatened to release years’ worth of text messages if Taylor didn’t provide a statement of public support for Blake amid her legal issue with Justin.
Swift was subpoenaed in the case last week … and, she’s been mentioned several times during this ongoing legal issue — mostly regarding a meeting that apparently went down between Taylor, Blake and Justin during the film’s production.
TMZ.com
A spokesperson for Lively applauded the judge’s decision to strike the motion … telling us “It took the court less than 24 hours to see through Mr. Freedman’s irrelevant, improper and inflammatory accusations, strike them, remove them from the court and warn Mr. Freedman that further misconduct may be met with sanctions.”