Justin Baldoni's Lawyers Claim Blake Lively's Publicist Made Him a Scapegoat to 'Escape' the Actress' 'Wrath'

• Justin Baldoni's legal team responded to a request from Leslie Sloane, Blake Lively's publicist, to be removed from his lawsuit

• They claim the publicist "played an active and integral role in a conspiracy to inflict harm on the Wayfarer Parties"

• An attorney for Sloane claimed her client was "dragged" into the legal battle to "distract from" Lively's accusations of sexual harassment

Justin Baldoni's legal team is not backing down from including Leslie Sloane, the publicist who works for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, in his lawsuit.

The It Ends With Us director-actor, 41, responded to Sloane's Feb. 20 request to be removed from the lawsuit in a filing on Thursday, March 6, which served as an opposition to Sloane's motion to dismiss.

"The Sloane Parties played an active and integral role in a conspiracy to inflict harm on the Wayfarer Parties," claimed the response, filed in the Southern District of New York.

His attorneys also claim in the filing, "In a desperate effort to salvage Lively’s reputation and to escape her wrath, the Sloane Parties conspired with Lively and consolidated defendants Ryan Reynolds and The New York Times Company to make scapegoats of the Wayfarer Parties for Lively’s woes."

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They went on to allege, "On information and belief, the Sloane Parties worked for months to drop breadcrumbs and hints of sinister allegations to the public while secretly feeding defamatory falsehoods to any reporter who would listen...."

"As a direct result of the actions of the Sloane Parties and their co-conspirators, the Wayfarer Parties have been damaged beyond measure," Baldoni's lawyers added. "These are the facts underpinning the Wayfarer Parties’ allegations against the Sloane Parties, and this is what the evidence will prove at trial."

In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, Sloane's attorney Sigrid McCawley, managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, says, "As our motion to dismiss makes clear, Leslie Sloane and her company Vision PR were dragged into this lawsuit in an attempt to distract from serious allegations of sexual harassment and systematic retaliation."

"The irony is not lost on us that Baldoni and his team have wrongfully accused Leslie Sloane of engaging in the very same misconduct for which they stand accused. The claims against Leslie Sloane were brought as a baseless finger-pointing exercise," added McCawley. "We look forward to setting the record straight on our grounds for dismissal and removing Leslie Sloane from this litigation, putting the rightful focus on the serious issues and allegations before the court."

Lively, 37, originally sued Baldoni, his publicists and crisis PR team, producer Jamey Heath, Wayfarer Studios and its co-founder Steve Sarowitz, claiming sexual harassment and an alleged retaliatory public smear campaign to "destroy" her reputation, which he has denied.

Sloane and Vision PR were "dragged" into the legal battle as a "smoke-and-mirrors exercise to distract from" Lively's accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation, Sloane's filing from February alleged, arguing there was no basis for accusing her of planting "malicious stories" or launching a smear campaign.

Related: A Complete Timeline of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's Feud (Including the Latest in their Legal Battle)

Elsewhere in their motion to dismiss, Sloane's attorneys defended Lively against Baldoni's framing of the case as a creative struggle to take over It Ends With Us.

"Baldoni’s allegations about the creative issues are irrelevant and tellingly sexist," it read. "Because Ms. Lively — an executive producer on the film — dared to offer input on the script, wardrobe and editing, Baldoni blasts her as 'tyrannical' and 'aggressive,' among other coded terms."

Lively and Baldoni's case is currently set to go to trial in March 2026.

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