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Entertainment journalist Kjersti Flaa speculated on why Justin Baldoni's team withdrew Taylor Swift's subpoena in the latest episode of her Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa podcast dated May 23, 2025. According to Flaa, the subpoena was just a tactic to indirectly share information.
"The subpoena against Taylor Swift has been dropped by Justin Baldon's team…This to me just proves that this was the plan all along," Flaa claimed.
Previously, People Magazine reported that after Swift was set to be subpoenaed by Justin Baldoni's legal team, the singer’s team filed a motion to dismiss the subpoena. In response, Freedman then filed a letter alleging that a "source who is highly likely to have reliable information" told him that Lively's lawyers made "extortionate threats" to the law firm representing Swift.
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Explaining the "extortionate threats", Flaa claimed:
"Taylor Swift had been pressured by Blake Lively to delete evidence, to delete text messages between her and Blake Lively. And she was pressured to give a public statement or to support Blake Lively in public. And if she didn't, Blake would leak 10 years of their private text messages together"
As per the same report, when Judge Lewis J. Liman struck this letter from the case docket on May 15, Justin Baldoni's legal team doubled down on their claim and filed a signed affidavit under the penalty of perjury, citing the source of their claims to be an hourlong phone call with a "person very closely linked to Taylor Swift" on February 14.
However, Baldoni’s legal team dropped the subpoena against Swift on May 22. A spokesperson for Blake Lively confirmed the news, telling Deadline:
"We are pleased that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties have withdrawn their harassing subpoenas to Taylor Swift and her law firm".
Meanwhile, in her podcast video, Flaa speculated that although “traditional media" was reporting the withdrawal of the "subpoena" as a "kind of a win for Blake Lively's team," it was a "very smart way of making" private dynamics between Swift and Lively "public."
What else did Kjersti Flaa speculate on why Justin Baldoni’s team withdrew Taylor Swift’s subpoena?
In the aforementioned podcast episode, Kjersti Flaa offered her theory on why Justin Baldoni’s legal team decided to withdraw a subpoena that had been issued to global pop icon Taylor Swift. According to Flaa, this move wasn’t just a matter of legal strategy—it was seemingly the result of a behind-the-scenes “deal” between Baldoni’s team and Swift’s representatives.
"Taylor Swift's team agreed with Bryan Freedman that he would subpoena Taylor Swift, they would file for it to get dismissed...and then he would send a letter to the judge explaining what had happened and why he needed that subpoena. And in that letter, all these things that we just learned about last week would become public," Flaa claimed.
Flaa also explained that if attorney Bryan Freedman’s earlier allegations were accurate, then Swift was in a precarious position regardless of her response, and "didn’t really have much of a choice". The journalist added that if the singer chose to support Blake Lively in public, then it "could be PR suicide for her."
On the other hand, if Swift chose not to support Lively, she risked facing the release of sensitive private communications, as Flaa claimed during her podcast.
"Blake Lively would release all these text messages, which could also affect Taylor Swift’s career dramatically. I mean, there could be stuff in there, of course, that she doesn’t want to get out. Who wants their private text messages made public?" she said.
According to Flaa, the alleged primary goal of the subpoena was to obtain key information indirectly, without naming certain insiders. So once that was done, Baldoni’s team no longer needed Swift’s direct involvement.
"All the information about what Blake did to Taylor Swift, how she threatened her and tried to extort her, would become public. And that’s all Baldoni’s team needed," Flaa stated.
Though she was labeled her claims as speculative, Flaa said she was "sure" that they (Justin Baldoni's legal team and Swift's team) seemingly made a deal "before this whole process started."
Blake Lively is embroiled in a legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni. It began when Blake Lively sued her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment and running a smear campaign against her.
In response, Justin Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit for defamation, civil extortion, and invasion of privacy, per People magazine.
Taylor Swift, who was previously subpoenaed in the case is spending time away from the spotlight with boyfriend Travis Kelce. And the ongoing Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni legal drama is in its pretrial stage, with trials starting on March 9, 2026.
