Justin Baldoni’s lawyer: We’ll sue Blake Lively ‘soon’ & release all of their texts

The fact that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s drama has all come to a head over the course of the holidays is pretty bonkers. There were entertainment reporters, legal experts and NYT journalists pulling double-shifts over Christmas and New Year’s because of the way everything was timed. Many have said that Blake Lively’s timing had a purpose – she filed her complaint with the California Civil Rights department on the Friday before Christmas, and her team organized the Times exclusive for the weekend before Christmas. Meaning, the intention was for Blake’s version of events to sit out there, relatively unchallenged for the two-week holiday period. I’m not sure if Blake’s team knew that Justin Baldoni, his publicists and his lawyers would be so proactive so quickly. On New Year’s Eve, Baldoni & nine other plaintiffs sued the Times over their story. Blake responded by suing Baldoni and his team, plus Wayfarer (Baldoni’s production company). We heard that Baldoni would sue Blake in the new year. So when will it happen?? According to Baldoni’s lawyer, “soon.”

Almost a week after Blake Lively accused her It Ends with Us costar Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and lauching a retaliatory public smear campaign against her, Baldoni’s lawyer says the actor/director plans to fire back with his own countersuit.

When asked by NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday, Jan. 2, if his client plans to sue Lively, attorney Bryan Freedman replied, “Absolutely … yes.”

“We plan to release every single text messages between the two of them,” Freedman told NBC News. “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.”

PEOPLE has exclusively learned that the plaintiffs will include Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios (his production company behind It End with Us), his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan. They plan to name Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane and Baldoni’s former publicist Stephanie Jones in the suit. (Jones sued Baldoni, Wayfarer, Abel and Nathan on Dec. 24.)

Freedman did not provide a timetable in terms of when Baldoni’s countersuit will be filed, but a source with knowledge of the lawsuit said it will be filed “soon.”

[From People]

As I said, I’m taking a wait-and-see approach to a lot of elements within this case or these cases. Initially, it sounded like Blake had an open-and-shut case when it came to sexual harassment (but maybe not so much with “social manipulation”). That’s also why I’m curious about Baldoni’s receipts and all of the text messages and communications, not just with Blake, but with his publicist and his team. I want to know what Wayfarer people were saying to each other about Blake, and whether there was an awareness, in real time as they shot the film, that Blake was so uncomfortable around Baldoni and that he was allegedly behaving inappropriately with her. Were there conversations within the production (with other producers) about anything related to Blake’s claims? Baldoni’s lawyer doesn’t say all of the communications will be released, just the messages between Blake and Justin though.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.