Justin Baldoni’s lawyer: Blake Lively threatened to release Taylor Swift’s texts?!?

Last Friday, the announcement came that Taylor Swift was being subpoenaed as a witness in the on-going lawsuits between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. I expected Taylor to be called as a witness, if only to provide context to her presence at a meeting between Baldoni and Lively (at Lively’s home). Following that meeting, there was a flurry of texts and voice memos between Baldoni and Lively, one of which was the introduction of Blake-as-Khaleesi, where she called Taylor and Ryan Reynolds her “dragons.”

It’s worth noting that Taylor has not been in any kind of rush to send out supportive statements for Blake, nor have the two women been seen or photographed together since the lawsuits blew up over Christmas. Taylor’s rep issued a statement about the subpoena, but it was mostly Taylor covering her own ass, not covering Blake’s. I still believe the story that the whole Khaleesi-text situation was revelatory for Taylor, and she finally understood that Blake has been leveraging her name for years. I think that has caused Taylor to distance herself from Blake this year. But according to Baldoni’s lawyer, the reason why Taylor hasn’t cut ties with Blake completely is because Blake threatened to expose Taylor’s texts about It Ends With Us??

Justin Baldoni’s attorneys brought forth a bombshell claim in a new court filing, alleging that Blake Lively threatened best friend Taylor Swift to publicly support her in her It Ends With Us legal battle. A lawyer for Lively calls the allegation “categorically false.”

After pushback from Lively and Ryan Reynolds on a subpoena issued to Venable, the law firm that represents Swift, Baldoni’s lawyers responded in a letter to the judge on Wednesday, May 14, arguing why they believe the subpoena is necessary in this case.

“The Lively Defendants’ insistence that the Subpoena seeks irrelevant information is wrong,” writes Bryan Freedman in the letter. Freedman claims to have received a tip from a “source who is highly likely to have reliable information,” according to the letter. That anonymous source alleged that Lively asked Swift to delete text messages.

Another allegation included in the letter suggests Lively’s attorney contacted Swift’s attorney “and demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively” — as well as “intimating that if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.”

Freedman alleges that they were also informed that Swift’s lawyer responded to Lively’s attorney and “addressed these inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats….” He adds, “It is those communications that the Wayfarer Parties seek to obtain” as potential evidence of “an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.”

In a statement to PEOPLE, Lively’s attorney Mike Gottlieb says, “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. 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.”

[From People]

It’s perfectly possible that Baldoni’s lawyers are just throwing sh-t to the wall and seeing what sticks. But here’s the thing: it actually is very important to Baldoni’s case to see the texts (related to It Ends With Us) between Blake and Taylor, and it’s also important to know if any of those texts have been deleted on either side. Like… Baldoni’s side has every right to subpoena Taylor as a witness (she was actually present at a significant meeting), but Baldoni also has the right to see any and all comms between Lively and Swift regarding It Ends With Us and/or the lawsuits. Now, if Blake actually threatened to release Taylor’s texts in a potentially retaliatory measure if Taylor didn’t support her… LMAO. Blake would be completely done. Taylor would go nuclear.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.