Justin Baldoni's Lawyer Plans To Sue Blake Lively After 'NYT' Allegation

Justin Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman He “absolutely” plans to sue Blake Lively on behalf of his client.

Freedman asked NBC News in an interview on Thursday, January 2 that he was planning to sue Lively, 37, on behalf of It ends with us director. Freedman replied, “Absolutely … yes.”

“We plan to release all messages between the two of them,” Freedman told reporters. “We want the truth to be clear. We want the documents to be there. We want people to make their decision based on receipts.”

It comes after Baldoni, 40, filed a $250 million counterclaim The New York Times Tuesday, December 31. The actor and director sued for defamation and false invasion of privacy following The New York Times' reporting to costar Lively after she accused him of sexual harassment.

Related: Justin Baldoni Filed $250 Million Lawsuit Against The New York Times

It Ends With Us director and star Justin Baldoni is suing the New York Times following its reporting on costar Blake Lively after she accused him of sexual harassment. Baldoni, 40, filed a $250 million lawsuit against Lively, 37, on Tuesday, December 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Us Weekly can confirm. […]

Baldoni was one of 10 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which also included members of the public Melissa Nathan again Jennifer Abel as well as It ends with Us producers James Heath again Steve Saraowitzwho initiated legal action against the news source.

On the same day, Baldoni sued The New York TimesLively filed a formal lawsuit against Baldoni, Nathan and Abel, and Wayfarer Studios in the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit alleges sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, emotional distress, invasion of privacy and loss of wages. The claims are consistent with those included in Lively's complaint filed with the California Department of Human Rights last week.

Lively addressed her legal action in a statement on Saturday, December 21st Us Weekly.

“I hope that my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these evil revenge tactics to hurt people who speak out and help protect others who may be targeted,” she said.

A New York Times said the spokesman Us Weekly in a statement on Tuesday, December 31, the agency plans to “vigorously defend the case.”

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement read. “Our story was reported neatly and correctly. It is based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. Those texts and emails were the basis for a discrimination lawsuit filed in California by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni and his co-conspirators.”

The statement went on to say, “In order to correct the wrong things in the case, when it wants the comment of Mr. ask them to point out any inaccuracies, provide more context and speak to our team. Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer and other articles chose not to have interviews with The Times or address any specific text messages or documents and instead posted a joint response, which was published in full. (Also, they sent their response to The Times at 11:16 pm ET Dec 20th, not 2:16 am ET Dec 21st as the complaint states.)”

In response to Baldoni filing a lawsuit, said Lively's lawyer Us Tuesday, December 31 that the case was based on “an obvious false premise.”

“Nothing in this case changes anything about the claims filed in Ms. Lively's California Civil Rights Department Complaint, or her federal complaint, filed earlier today,” the statement read. “This case is based on the patently false idea that the complaint of Ms. Lively's management of Wayfarer and others was a strategy based on the choice “not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,” and that “the lawsuit was not his ultimate goal.” As indicated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that outline of the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. Although we will not put this issue in the papers, we encourage people to read Ms. Lively's entire complaint. We look forward to dealing with all of Wayfarer's allegations in court.”

Freedman also shared a statement with him Us Weeklyvowing to “take it down” The New York Times “for its vicious smear campaign.”

“In this vicious smear campaign orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, i New York Times fearing the demands and demands of two powerful Hollywood 'untouchables', disregarding journalistic procedures and ethics if they are worthy of a respected publication by using embellished and altered documents and deliberately omitting documents that contradict their chosen PR narrative,” he said in a written statement. Us Tuesday, December 31. “In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their vicious PR smear campaign designed to restore Lively's self-imposed public image and counter the basis of criticism in the Internet community.” The puzzle is rich.”

He continued: “However, do not make a mistake as we are all united to reduce it The NY Times by saying that we no longer allow them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by suing those people who abused their power to try to destroy the lives of my clients. While their side accepts partial truths, we accept the full truth – and we have all the communications to back it up. The community will decide for itself as it did when this started.”