Blake Lively Attorneys Address Claims That Deposition Was ‘Showdown’ with Justin Baldoni

Blake Lively’s lawyers are clarifying the circumstances of her deposition opposite Justin Baldoni in their ongoing legal battle.

After the actress, 37, provided testimony in her attorneys’ office in New York City on Thursday, July 31, TMZ reported that Baldoni, 41, was present in the room.

Within a motion to the judge filed on Monday, Aug. 4, Lively’s lawyers claim Baldoni and his fellow defendants “immediately leaked details from the deposition to the tabloid media,” citing TMZ and a Daily Mail article that included source reporting.

Calling the reports consistent with Baldoni’s lawyers’ “goal of creating a media circus around Ms. Lively’s deposition,” her attorneys claimed Baldoni’s lawyers’ goal was “apparently to advance a storyline that the deposition was a face-to-face showdown between Mr. Baldoni and Ms. Lively.”

One of the media reports, they continued, described Lively’s attire during the deposition and crafted a narrative that she “needed a large contingent of people with her to testify, while misleadingly suggesting that only Mr. Baldoni and [his attorney Bryan] Freedman were present for the deposition on their side.”

The “reality,” they added in the filing, was that the Gossip Girl alum “testified across the table from Mr. Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, all of whom attended this deposition in person, as well as eight attorneys representing the Wayfarer and Wallace Parties, two of whom questioned her.”

PEOPLE reached out to Baldoni’s rep for comment.

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The legal saga following the release of It Ends With Us began in December when Lively filed a sexual-harassment complaint against Baldoni, alleging misconduct on the set and a retaliatory smear campaign, which he has denied. In June, Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, alleging extortion, defamation and more, was dismissed by Judge Liman. 

Lively’s delayed July 31 deposition came after the judge granted a protective order that allowed her team to dictate where it would be held and to be notified in advance who would be present. 

Freedman told TMZ in June that Baldoni is “a person who wants to be vindicated, and that’s all that he cares about… He’s waiting for his day in court, where he can speak out to tell the truth.”