Blake Lively says Justin Baldoni’s “vengeful and rambling” defamation suit against her should be tossed because it is against the law.
Baldoni’s $400 million suit against Lively for accusing him of sexual misconduct should be thrown out since claims of sexual harassment are protected from “retaliatory lawsuits,” her lawyers said in documents filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday.
The “vengeful and rambling lawsuit against Blake Lively is a profound abuse of the legal process,” Lively’s lawyers wrote. “The law prohibits weaponizing defamation lawsuits, like this one, to retaliate against individuals who have filed legal claims or have publicly spoken out about sexual harassment and retaliation.”
Lively was “legally entitled to file her complaint and disclose it to the public,” the filing says of the initial suit, which focuses on interactions between the now-battling duo during filming of “It Ends With Us.”
Baldoni’s counter-suit amounts to a “blunt public relations” tool and is part of the actor and his production company’s “sinister campaign to ‘bury’ and ‘destroy’ her for coming forward,” the court papers allege.
Lawyers for Baldoni didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Additional reporting by Peter Senzamici
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