Justin Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman fired back after Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds requested a gag order, saying he won’t be “bullied” into silence amid their current legal drama.
“The irony is not lost on anyone that Ms. Lively is so petrified of the truth that she has moved to gag it,” Freedman said in a statement to Page Six. “The immense power that she wielded in Hollywood built on pure fear of her husband and their powerful friends came to an end the moment Ms. Lively planned a mass distribution of a disturbingly false and well calculated hit piece in the New York Times.”
“Ms. Lively did this with the sole intent to ruin the lives of innocent individuals, and then went the extra mile to place blame on a fictitious smear campaign, all because she quite simply could not accept that the public had organically seen through her facade.”
“When you accuse innocent individuals of something so disturbing as sexual harassment without thinking of the destruction it would cause to not only them, but the entire domestic violence community, this is where accountability for such mean spirited actions must be taken,” the message continued.
Freedman closed: “We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts. All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations of sexual harassment and subsequent smear campaign. It seems that in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
Reps for Lively, 37, and Reynolds, 48, did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Lively and Reynolds asked Judge Lewis J. Liman to prohibit Freedman from talking to the media or releasing discovery materials to the press.
In a letter, the pair claimed that his remarks could potentially “taint the jury pool” should Lively’s sexual harassment case make it to court.
“As Ms. Lively’s counsel have attempted, repeatedly, to caution Mr. Freedman, federal litigation must be conducted in court and according to the relevant rules of professional conduct,” the letter states, per several outlets.
The couple asserted that Freedman had “given television interviews, appeared on podcasts, issued inflammatory written statements, and leaked information (including, remarkably, documents as banal as document preservation demands to third parties) to the Hollywood press and tabloid media” nearly “every day” since Lively filed her first complaint against Baldoni on Dec. 20.
They also alleged Freedman’s remarks contained “numerous new false statements” regarding not only Lively, but others as well.
Sources close to the “It Ends With Us” director, 41, reacted to Lively’s legal move on Friday, saying they found it “grossly unfair” after Lively’s sexual harassment claims were published by the New York Times.
The insiders called the request “unbelievable,” claiming that Freedman has only been defending his client from Lively’s alleged “takedown campaign.”
This is all connected to the $400 million lawsuit Baldoni filed against Lively and Reynolds, accusing her of defamation, civil extortion and other allegations.
Lively has denied any wrongdoing.
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