Justin Baldoni's lawyer slams Blake Lively's smear campaign claims

Days after Blake Lively accused her "It Ends With Us" co-star and director Justin Baldoni and his producing partners of sexual harassment and retaliation, his team is pushing back against the claims made in Lively's 80-page complaint.

Entertainment lawyer Bryan Freedman, who represents Baldoni, Baldoni's publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis communications strategist Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group PR, defended his clients in a statement on Monday shared with several outlets including Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter and Us Weekly.

“TAG PR operated as any other crisis management firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources," his statement read. "The standard scenario planning TAG PR drafted proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that which the media themselves picked up on."

The document included in Lively's complaint, which has a "confidential" label at the top, proclaims its aim is to "protect the reputation" of Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath and production company Wayfarer Studios "in the lead up, during, and following the premiere of 'It Ends with Us.'"

Allegedly compiled by TAG PR, Nathan's agency, the document prepares "several potential scenarios" "should (Lively) and her team make her grievances public." For example, if Lively and her team "push out a negative story" about Baldoni and his production studio, one of Nathan's alleged strategies was to "brief people with a more robust version of the facts" including off-the-record conversations with media outlets that were "trusted friendlies."

On Aug. 1, Abel allegedly wrote to producer Heath: "Confidentially I'm out to dinner with a friend of 12+ years who writes for people magazine, Fox News, in touch, us weekly, and she is fully briefed of the situation and is armed and ready to take this story of Blake weaponizing feminism to any of her outlets the minute we give her the green light. She hates Blake, has heard this story before, and will do anything for us."

On Aug. 16, nearly two weeks after allegedly messaging Abel that she'd spoken to an editor at the Daily Mail, Nathan allegedly shared a link to a Daily Mail article with the headline "Is Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED? String of 'hard to watch' videos that have surfaced following 'tone deaf' Q&A to promote It Ends With Us could tarnish 36-year-old star's golden Hollywood image for good."

According to Blake's filing, Abel replied: "You really outdid yourself with this piece." Nathan allegedly replied, "That's why you hired me, right? I'm the best."

Baldoni's lawyer alleges publicists' communications were 'leaked'

According to THR, Freedman also cast doubt on the origin and context of the revealing text messages and emails between Baldoni and his team, which were included in Lively's filing and published in The New York Times' reporting on the "Gossip Girl" alum's fight for legal remedies.

"It’s ironic that The New York Times, through their effort to 'uncover' an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that lack critical context – the very same tactics she’s accusing the firm of implementing," Freedman reportedly wrote in a statement to the outlets.

The "leaked personal text exchanges," according to the Times, were collected via a subpoena, issued by a court clerk that allows someone to obtain records from a person or a business.

USA TODAY has reached out to Freedman and Lively's representatives for comment.

Unwanted kissing, smear tactics: All the allegations in Blake Lively's complaint

Justin Baldoni's lawyer claims crisis PR was hired in response to Blake Lively pushing 'false' stories

In a Saturday statement to the Times, Freedman categorically denied the allegations in Lively's complaint and claimed the allegations only served as "yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film."

He also depicted Baldoni and his studio's hiring of a crisis manager as a defensive tactic against "negative and completely fabricated and false stories" they claim Lively's team pushed out before the film's marketing was under way.

"What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals," Freedman wrote.

Baldoni's publicist defended texts, emails in since-deleted Facebook posts

Before Freedman issued his statement, according to THR and Rolling Stone reported that Abel, Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios' publicist, responded to Lively's allegations in posts shared in a Facebook group that have since been deleted.

“No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it’s our job to be ready for any scenario,” Abel reportedly wrote. “But we didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us.”

She also reportedly stated they “rejoiced and joked in the fact that fans were recognizing our clients heart and work without us having to do anything but keep our heads down and focus on positive interviews for our client.”

Abel reportedly acknowledged the texts showed they “sophomorically reveled” about the social media reactions to Lively, whom she described as “the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult.”

She reportedly claimed in her posts that at the outset of the "It Ends With Us" marketing campaign, she found out that “the opposing team had been planting horrible stories” about Baldoni in case he "did not comply with the demands set forth for the campaign."

USA TODAY has reached out to Abel for comment.

Deep dive: Blake Lively's claims, 'astroturfing' and when fans feel manipulated

What are Blake Lively's allegations against Justin Baldoni?

In Lively's complaint, which was submitted to the California Civil Rights Department as a first step to filing a civil lawsuit against the named defendants, the actress and businesswoman says she "was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath’s misconduct" months prior to filming the movie. As a result, her lawyers claimed, a Jan. 4 "'all-hands' meeting was convened to address the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film."

Lively chose to have her husband, "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds join as a representative in the meeting, her complaint stated.

All parties in attendance at the meeting were said to have agreed to Lively's terms for resuming filming, which were described in a 30-bullet-point list. Lively's "protections for return to production" included provisions such as "An intimacy coordinator must be present at all times when (Lively) is on set in scenes with Mr. Baldoni" and "No one will enter, attempt to enter, interrupt, pressure, or request entrance to (Lively's) trailer while she is in a state of undress for any reason."

Lively's complaint alleged Nathan and TAG PR ensured media outlets published negative content about Lively and employed a tactic called "astroturfing" as part of a smear campaign to make it seem as if regular social media users were posting critical takes of the actress.

In alleged copies of an email exchange, Abel wrote that Baldoni "wants to feel like she can be buried," to which Nathan replied: "You know we can bury anyone. But I can't write that to him." The alleged exchanges between the two revealed their monitoring of social media attitudes toward Baldoni and Lively, as well as Nathan's work influencing media coverage in favor of Baldoni.

At the end of her complaint, Lively's attorneys wrote, "Through this Complaint, Ms. Lively seeks to set the record straight, to hold the Wayfarer Parties and Associates accountable, and to shine a light on this new form of retaliation so that it will not be used against any others who seek to stand up and speak out against sexual harassment."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justin Baldoni's lawyer slams Blake Lively's takedown campaign claims