Justin Baldoni‘s legal team is seeking to depose Taylor Swift in his legal battle with Blake Lively.
According to a letter submitted Sept. 11 by Baldoni’s legal team, led by Bryan Freedman, to Lewis J. Liman, the U.S. District Judge overseeing the case, his team said that Taylor “agreed to appear for deposition, which will be taken sometime between Oct. 20 and 25 due to ‘preexisting professional obligations.'”
The singer will be releasing her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, on Oct. 3.
While Baldoni’s team says that Swift agreed to appear for a deposition in that time frame, Douglas Baldridge, an attorney for Swift, clarified in a letter that Swift “did not agree to a deposition.”
“As counsel for the parties know, since the inception of this matter we have consistently maintained that my client has no material role in this action,” Baldridge said in a letter obtained by ABC News.
“Further, my client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes. We take no role in those disputes.”
Baldoni’s letter was also met with criticism by Lively’s counsel, in part because the deposition would fall after the discovery cut-off date, which is slated for the end of September.
A letter filed on Friday by Lively’s counsel, Michael J. Gottlieb accused Baldoni of requesting an “extension of the discovery schedule for the sole purpose of taking the deposition of third-party Taylor Swift.”
Lively’s counsel also called Baldoni’s tactic of bringing Taylor into the legal battle once again a “relentless media strategy” and added that Baldoni’s “request should be denied.”
Baldoni’s representative declined to comment to ABC News. ABC News has reached out to a representative for Lively.
Lively and Baldoni, who both starred in the 2024 film It Ends With Us, have been embroiled in a legal battle since December 2024.
In May, Taylor, who has been a longtime friend of Lively’s, was subpoenaed as a witness by Bryan Freedman. In response, a spokesperson for the singer at the time said she wasn’t involved in the film except to license her song, “My Tears Ricochet,” and was never on set.
By the end of May, sources with direct knowledge told ABC News at the time that Taylor was no longer facing a subpoena from Baldoni, adding that it was no longer needed because the necessary information had been obtained.
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