Blake scores win over Baldoni; Judge strikes ‘IMPROPER’ filing

In a minor win for Blake Lively, a

federal judge

has struck down a letter and accompanying affidavit filed by actor Justin Baldoni’s legal team, which alleged that the actress attempted to pressure pop star Taylor Swift into deleting messages. According to People, the court deemed the submission “improper” and “irrelevant.”US District Judge Lewis J Liman granted Lively’s motion to strike on Thursday, issuing a warning to

Baldoni

’s attorney, Bryan

Freedman

that "future misuse of the Court’s docket may be met with

sanctions

."Freedman on Wednesday, submitted as part of Baldoni’s attempt to subpoena Swift in ongoing litigation. In the filing, Freedman cited an anonymous source who alleged that Lively’s attorneys had made "extortionate threats" toward Swift’s legal team, purportedly urging the singer to issue a public statement of support for Lively. It further claimed that failure to do so would result in the release of “private text messages of a personal nature” involving Swift.

Lively’s legal team quickly responded, dismissing the allegations as “categorically false” and “untethered from reality.”Lively’s attorney Mike Gottlieb in a statement to People, “We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here.”In their motion to strike, Lively’s counsel accused Freedman of attempting to “launder scandalous and defamatory allegations” through the court to generate media attention, calling the filing a blatant abuse of the judicial process.Despite the judge’s ruling, Baldoni's lawyer doubled down the following day, filing a signed affidavit under penalty of perjury with additional details from the unnamed source.A spokesperson for Lively stated, "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 record, and warn Mr Freedman that further misconduct may be met with sanctions."