Blake Lively’s Subpoena for Justin Baldoni’s Records Ruled ‘Overly Intrusive’

A federal judge has shut down part of Blake Lively’s subpoena for phone records amid her ongoing legal conflict with It Ends With Us director-costar Justin Baldoni.

In court documents released Friday, Feb. 28, Judge Lewis J. Liman issued a mixed ruling, saying that the subpoena from Lively’s legal team for communications from Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios dating back to 2022 was “overly intrusive and disproportionate to the needs of the case.”

“Lively has identified no means to segregate those numbers that may have some relevance to her case from those numbers that would have no relevance and would reveal sensitive personal information,” reads the judge’s ruling, which notes that in Lively’s initial complaint against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign, she claimed the negative campaign began in August 2024. 

However, attorneys for Baldoni — who has denied the allegations and responded in January by countersuing Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist and The New York Times in a suit that alleged defamation and extortion — “have not provided any basis for asserting an interest in the communications of non-parties.” This means that “Lively may make discovery requests tailored to those” she already identified in the alleged negative media campaign. 

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said that the judge “put a stop” to the actress-producer’s “egregious attempt to invade our clients’ privacy. This is a big win. No matter how the Lively Parties may try to spin this decision, the Court saw their efforts for what they really are: a desperate fishing expedition intended to salvage their debunked claims long after they already savaged our clients’ reputations in the New York Times.”

A spokesperson for Lively also responded to the ruling in a statement: “What is Bryan Freedman hiding? After promising to release all the ‘receipts,’ Freedman ran into court to keep secret the phone records of who Baldoni [and his associates] were calling during their retaliatory campaign.”

The statement continues, “instead of getting these records from the phone carriers the way we initially requested, the judge has ruled that if we simply submit more specific requests, we will be able to get the records we are seeking. Today we will do that, we are submitting those requests directly to defendants involved and we look forward to seeing the records.”

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In a Feb. 13 letter filed in New York federal court, attorneys for both Lively and Baldoni opted out of “inappropriate” and “premature” mediation, indicating that both cases in Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al. will go to trial in their March 2026 court date.

On Feb. 18, Lively filed an updated version of her original December 2024 lawsuit, claiming that two unidentified female It Ends with Us costars “will testify” about Baldoni’s allegedly inappropriate behavior on the Colleen Hoover adaptation’s set. Freedman called the amended complaint “underwhelming” and “filled with unsubstantial hearsay of unnamed persons who are clearly no longer willing to come forward or publicly support her claims.”