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Journalist Kjersti Flaa addressed a new finding in the legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. On April 14, Flaa took to her podcast, Flaawsome Talk, to discuss the alleged "phantom subpoena" that Baldoni's former PR company received.
According to Variety, Stephanie Jones, Justin Baldoni's former public relations manager, allegedly received a subpoena, which prompted her to hand over text messages shared between her employees to Blake Lively. These messages, shared between publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, seemingly implicated Justin Baldoni in orchestrating a smear campaign against Lively.
Kjersti Flaa explored the timeline of events, stating,
"Stephanie Jones claims that in October, she was subpoenaed and she had to give up these text messages and emails. To me, there's so many things that don't add up here. First of all, if she was subpoenaed, why wasn't her own phone subpoenaed as well? Secondly, why was there a subpoena when there was no legal stuff going on? The lawsuit that Blake Lively filed, she didn't file that until 2025. She did file a complaint in December, but she didn't file a lawsuit until January."
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More about Blake Lively's "phantom subpoena" to Justin Baldoni
According to People, Justin Baldoni and Jennifer Abel filed a lawsuit against Stephanie Jones, accusing her of leaking private text messages.
As reported by the Daily Mail, questions have been raised regarding the authenticity of the subpoena served to Jones. Bryan Freedman, Justin Baldoni's attorney, stated that a subpoena requires a case number from a filed legal case, and there was no case filed yet at the time of the subpoena.
Freedman claimed Jones leaked those messages "purely out of spite" towards her former employee. He stated,
"There is no doubt that Stephanie Jones willingly and maliciously spread private and confidential communications concerning her former clients in an effort to humiliate them and destroy the fledgling business and reputation of her former employee. She did so purely out of spite and prior to any phantom subpoena that we have yet to see."
However, Jones's lawyer, Mareen Shah, responded that Freedman's claims were merely an attempt at distraction, stating, "More distractions, and still no defense for what the whole world saw in those text messages."
The controversy between Kjersti Flaa and Blake Lively
On August 11, 2024, Kjersti Flaa shared a video of her 2016 interview with Blake Lively and Parker Posey on her YouTube channel. The video titled 'The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job' showcased Lively sniping back at Flaa when she congratulated her on her pregnancy.
Flaa also received accusations of being part of the smear campaign against Lively. She denied the allegations in a video posted on Instagram.
Blake Lively has yet to respond to Kjertsi Flaa's statements.
