Taylor Swift summons withdrawn in Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively legal battle
Justin Baldoni's lawyers have withdrawn a subpoena that was issued to Taylor Swift amid the It Ends With Us actor's ongoing legal battle with co-star Blake Lively.
Swift, who is close friends with Lively, had been mentioned in connection with the ongoing legal case between the co-stars when text exchanges were revealed that included her name in Baldoni's US$400-million defamation countersuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds in January.
Lawyers for Swift and Lively previously filed motions to revoke the subpoena, issued earlier this month.
Lively's spokesperson previously said that Baldoni had attempted to subpoena the pop star as a witness in the case 'designed' to use Swift's 'name to draw public interest.'
'We are pleased that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties have withdrawn their harassing subpoenas to Taylor Swift and her law firm,' the spokesperson said in a statement to Variety on May 22.
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'We supported the efforts of Taylor's team to quash these inappropriate subpoenas directed to her counsel and we will continue to stand up for any third party who is unjustly harassed or threatened in the process.'
'The Baldoni and Wayfarer team have tried to put Taylor Swift, a woman who has been an inspiration for tens of millions across the globe, at the center of this case since day one,' Lively's spokesperson added.
'Faced with having to justify themselves in federal court, they folded. At some point they will run out of distractions from the actual claims of sexual harassment and retaliation they are facing,' the statement concluded.
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Taylor Swift subpoenaed to testify in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni trial
Since the legal battle began, Baldoni's legal team has made text messages from Lively and Reynolds public on a website, titled The Lawsuit Info, created to help defend him.
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On the website, published in early February, Baldoni, 41, also shared an amended complaint in his case against Lively, Reynolds, Lively's PR firm and the New York Times, as well as a 168-page document, called 'Timeline of relevant events,' related to the case and the production of the film.
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The timeline includes emails and text messages that were allegedly sent leading up to and during the movie's filming.
Text messages between Lively and Baldoni, where she seemingly alludes to Swift as 'one of her dragons,' were released in February. Swift and Lively have been very close friends since 2015 and the pop star is the godmother of Lively's children.
According to Variety, the subpoenas to Swift and her legal team did not appear to be connected to those particular text messages.
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's lawyer, said he was looking for evidence that Lively's lawyer had threatened to release text messages between Lively and Swift unless Swift issued a statement of support for the Gossip Girl actor, according to a court filing viewed by the outlet. (Global News has not independently viewed the document.)
Freedman alleged that he received a voicemail on Feb. 14 from 'a person very closely linked to Taylor Swift.' He declined to identify the person but claimed that Lively's lawyer had demanded that the 35-year-old singer post a statement in support of Lively on social media and warned that he could release 10 years of text messages between the pair.
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Freedman also claimed that Swift's lawyers accused Lively's lawyers of extortion.
The unidentified person also claimed that Lively had told Swift to delete their text messages from several months earlier, according to Freedman.
Freedman said the subpoena was to obtain the allegedly extortionate conversation in a letter to Lively's lawyer.
Lively's lawyers called Freedman's allegations 'unequivocally and demonstrably false.'
Swift's legal team previously said that if Swift was subpoenaed, she wouldn't have any information relevant to the legal dispute and should not be involved in the case.
'Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was travelling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history,' her spokesperson said on May 9.
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Swift's team said her only involvement in the film was licensing a song, which was My Tears Ricochet.
'Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift's name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case,' the spokesperson said.
Lively's legal team released a statement after news of Swift's potential involvement in the case spread. It said that Baldoni and his legal team 'continue to turn a case of sexual harassment and retaliation into entertainment for the tabloids.'
'This is a very serious legal matter, not Barnum & Bailey's Circus,' the spokesperson said. 'The defendants continue to publicly intimidate, bully, shame and attack women's rights and reputations.'
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Baldoni and Lively's legal trial is set for March 2026 in New York City.
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