A judge has turned down an attempt by Justin Baldoni’s legal team to depose Taylor Swift in his ongoing lawsuit with co-star Blake Lively.
Judge Lewis Liman ruled on Friday that Baldoni’s lawyers had waited too long to schedule Swift’s deposition and said the court would not extend the discovery deadline beyond September 30.
“Having failed to demonstrate appropriate diligence, the requested extension is denied,” Liman wrote.
The case stems from a December 2024 lawsuit in which Lively accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her during the filming of the Colleen Hoover adaptation “It Ends With Us,” where Baldoni played her abusive partner.
Baldoni later filed a defamation suit, which has since been dismissed, claiming Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, sought to destroy his career through false harassment allegations.
On Friday, Swift’s lawyer rejected claims that she had agreed to hand over evidence.
“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,” a letter from Swift’s legal team said, according to US Weekly.
“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,” the letter added. “We take no role in those disputes.”
The ruling came after Baldoni’s team filed documents Thursday seeking an extension of the discovery period to allow Swift’s deposition during the week of October 20, citing her “pre-existing professional obligations.”
In their filing, Baldoni’s lawyers claimed Swift had “agreed to appear for deposition but is unable to do so before October 20, 2025,” noting the October 3 release of her upcoming album “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Lively’s lawyer countered that assertion, insisting Baldoni’s side had no proof.
“Even if one were to take the Wayfarer Defendants’ representation at face value, they have not come close to establishing good cause for their requested relief,” they wrote in Friday’s filings.
Baldoni’s attorneys were reportedly interested in possible text messages exchanged between Lively and Swift regarding conditions on the set of “It Ends With Us.”
As part of discovery, Swift was subpoenaed for her communications with Lively.
That subpoena was dropped in May, after Swift’s representative argued it had been “designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”
Lively’s team also failed in its attempt to have Swift excluded from the proceedings entirely.
Swift was first drawn into the dispute when Baldoni claimed he attended a 2023 meeting at Lively’s home to discuss script changes, where Reynolds and Swift were present as her “dragons.”
Representatives for Lively and Swift denied she had any involvement with the production, saying her only connection was the use of her song “My Tears Ricochet” in the soundtrack.
“Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film,” a spokesperson said.
“She did not even see ‘It Ends With Us’ until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history.”
