The explosive legal feud between It Ends With Us star Blake Lively and her co-star/director Justin Baldoni just reached a new level of intensity.
Court documents filed this week suggest that Baldoni and his team may have deliberately used encrypted, auto-deleting communication apps to hide evidence tied to an alleged smear campaign against Lively – and the actress’s legal team is calling it a “digital smoking gun.”
According to filings obtained by Deadline and TMZ, Lively’s attorneys from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher accused Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios team, and PR associates of concealing evidence throughout the discovery process. The documents claim the defendants “hid the ball at every turn,” either by failing to produce critical communications or by wrongly shielding them under attorney-client privilege – prompting over a dozen discovery motions so far.
The key allegation centers around the use of the Signal app and voice memos to execute a coordinated online smear campaign against Lively in mid-2024. Her lawyers argue that Baldoni’s inner circle and associated PR professionals – including Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel – knowingly used self-deleting platforms to destroy relevant communications while anticipating litigation.
“Defendants anticipated litigation with Ms. Lively by at least August 2024 but nonetheless elected to use methods of communication that automatically delete,” the filing reads, adding that the messages discussed “the execution of the Digital Campaign against Ms. Lively.”
Essentially, Lively’s team is arguing that Baldoni’s camp knew a lawsuit was coming and took steps to erase any digital evidence that could implicate them.
Baldoni, his representatives, and his studio have consistently denied all of Lively’s allegations – which include claims of sexual harassment, retaliation, and professional sabotage during and after production of It Ends With Us, the Sony-backed film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel.
Even with some emails and texts that appear to challenge his version of events, Baldoni has maintained that there was no orchestrated campaign against his co-star. Instead, his team claims that the online backlash directed at Lively around the film’s release was “organic,” generated by fans and critics who viewed her as “elitist.”
Earlier this year, Baldoni escalated the conflict by filing a $400 million defamation countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and others – a move that briefly dominated headlines before being dismissed in the summer of 2025.
Still, Lively’s team has long suspected foul play behind the scenes. Depositions from former staffers at Jonesworks LLC – Baldoni’s ex-PR firm – revealed that communications on Signal and other platforms were used to direct negative online narratives about Lively ahead of the It Ends With Us premiere.
According to testimony from Katherine Case and Breanna Butler, former employees under PR executive Melissa Nathan, internal messages suggest a coordinated effort to “taint” Lively’s image while boosting Baldoni’s reputation. These revelations surfaced through legal depositions earlier this year.
A separate filing from Stephanie Jones’ legal team – representing Baldoni’s former PR agency Jonesworks – echoed the accusations. It stated that after Lively first filed her harassment and retaliation claims in late 2024, Abel and other PR associates “actively directed social-media messaging intended to promote Baldoni and disparage Lively.”
Jones’ attorney, Kristin Tahler, didn’t mince words when speaking to Deadline:
“Jen Abel conspired with Melissa Nathan, Justin Baldoni, and Wayfarer to orchestrate a smear campaign and she did it in secret, outside of Jonesworks and behind Stephanie Jones’ back. Conversations were moved to an auto-deleting platform and evidence was destroyed. There can be only one reason for this. They had something to hide and wanted to make sure it would never be discovered.”
The new evidence strengthens Lively’s position as the case heads toward trial. Her team’s 30-page memorandum argues that despite the defendants’ alleged efforts to destroy records, “substantial evidence” remains proving that the retaliatory campaign was carried out as planned. They also accuse Baldoni’s camp of violating court orders and destroying or withholding critical evidence.
The filing asks Judge Lewis Liman to issue an adverse inference ruling, which would allow jurors to presume that the deleted messages contained incriminating information. In simpler terms, Lively’s lawyers are asking the court to infer guilt from the disappearance of key communications.
The motion concludes bluntly:
“Defendants intentionally deleted and failed to preserve relevant evidence for this litigation… Defendants did, in fact, execute the plan that TAG recommended and intentionally failed to preserve their communications in order to hide this fact.”
As this high-profile case barrels toward its March 2026 trial in New York City, tensions are clearly escalating. What began as allegations of harassment on a movie set has spiraled into a multi-layered legal drama involving defamation suits, destroyed evidence, and behind-the-scenes corporate intrigue.
For Lively, the latest revelations could mark a turning point – bolstering her claims that she was the target of a calculated smear campaign. For Baldoni, they represent yet another challenge in a legal battle that has already battered his public image.
One thing is certain: this courtroom showdown isn’t cooling down anytime soon.
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