Justin Baldoni's attorney blames the New York Times for participating with Blake Lively's publicist in "cherry-picking" texts

In the latest developments in Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively's legal feud, Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, has accused The New York Times of "cherry-picking texts" and taking messages out of context. Freedman's statements came after his client filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Times over an article published on December 21.

In a January 7 interview on News Nation, Bryan Freedman accused The New York Times of "cherry-picking" certain text messages while being involved with Blake Lively's publicists. These messages were used in the publication's December 21 article, ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.

"I'm blaming the New York Times for participating with Blake Lively's publicists at engaging in this campaign where they actually were part of facilitating the complaint getting filed with the CRD (Civil Rights Division). They knew the complaint was getting filed, encouraged them to file the complaint how a copy of the complaint before it was filed, and once it was filed, they went with a story," Freedman said.

Freedman also claimed that "no investigative journalism" was involved in The Times's article, which was written based on Lively's complaints against Baldoni (filed on December 20).

"We did respond, and we challenged actually the veracity of the story and the text messages and specifically said that those messages were cherry-picked and used out of context," he said.

Blake Lively's legal battle with Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios began on December 20, when the actress filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department. In her filing, Lively accused Baldoni of alleged s*xual harassment, indulging in a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation as a retaliatory measure, and creating an inappropriate workplace environment during the shooting of It Ends With Us.

In response, on December 31, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing it of promissory fraud and breach of an implied-in-fact contract. Nine others besides the actor signed the lawsuit, but it did not name Blake Lively as a defendant.

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Justin Baldoni's lawyer promises to put out all text messages pertaining to the Blake Lively case in public

Justin Baldoni at the Cannes Lions 2019: Day Two (Image via Getty)

In his January 7 interview on News Nation, Justin Baldoni's lawyer promised to put forward "receipts" of all the relevant text messages in public to counter Blake Lively's allegations.

"It's just about truth and in that regard what we're going to do is like no one's ever done in any kind of case. We're going to take what the young kids call receipts and we're going to take those text messages and we're going to put them out for the public to see."

Freedman also specifically referred to one of the allegations Lively made in her original complaint. The former Gossip Girl actress had accused Justin Baldoni of s*xual harassment because he had allegedly entered into her trailer while she was breastfeeding. Countering her allegation, Freedman said:

"When Blake Lively says she was s*xually harassed because Justin Baldoni went into her trailer while she was breastfeeding, what she actually failed to talk about is the invitation that she sent in a text message and said I'm pumping come down to my trailer and we'll go over lines. It's right there it's in a text message."

Justin Baldoni countered Lively's claims in his $250 million lawsuit with alleged screenshots of her messages. In his interview, Freedman questioned the New York Times' authenticity, as they claimed to have verified over 1,000 pages of text messages. However, Freedman said they did not "find" the text from Blake Lively, in which she allegedly invited Baldoni to come to her trailer while she was "pumping."

In his lawsuit, Justin Baldoni accused The New York Times of not verifying their claims before writing their December 21 article on the case.

"The Times Story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives. But the Times did not care.”

"It Ends With Us" New York Premiere (Image via Getty)

Meanwhile, on January 6, Blake Lively's legal team reiterated her legal accusations and promised to prove them through litigation. They mentioned that her complaints are based on facts.

"This is not a 'feud' arising from 'creative differences' or a 'he said/she said' situation. As alleged in Ms. Lively's complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set."

Bryan Freedman responded to Lively's legal team on January 7 in a statement to PEOPLE, accusing the actress of indulging in "a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie (It Ends With Us)."

Baldoni's attorney further alleged that the actress "orchestrated this vicious attack by sending The New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint."

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The story is developing and further details on the legal case are awaited.